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FEDERALISM: 



OR 



THE QUESTION OF EXCLUSIVE POWER, 



THE TRUE ISSUE IN THE 



PRESENT MONETARY AND POLITICAL DISCUSSIONS 



UNITED STATES 



Abstract Truth is an " air line" drawn by theorists, which often cannot be followed 
■without Mischief or Defeat. Practical Truth is a line on the face of the earth, run 
by Innocence and Wisdom, and followed by Discretion. 

Surely ! it would be madness sheer 
To run the dirty muck again — 
To barter Principle for filthy lucre — 
Your Liberty for trash and fraud. 



if 



BY JOHN W. KING, M. D. ^ ^ 

Covington, Ky. 

^ — \L s 



./ 



SECOND EDITION. 



<^ CINCINNATI: 

PUBLISHED BY U. P. JAMES, 

Na 26 Pearl Street. 

1841. 



» ^^ 






TO ALL TRUE PATRIOTS, 
THE FOLLOWING NUMBERS ARE INSCRIBED, 

WITH THE nEQ.UESTS THAT THEY WILL 

^'Rcad, think and reflect— Read, reflect and think," 

And then pass them in succession to all 
WHO WILL DO LIKEWISE, 



AMD OBLK 



THE AUTHOR. 



Entered according to an act of Congress, in the year 1841, by U. P. James, in the 
Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the District of Ohio. 



R. P. Brooks, Printer. 



FEDERALISM. 



NO. I. 

Mr. John C. Wright i—Sir — You must be amused, 
for surely I am, at the great solicitude which is so fre- 
quently manifested of late by many of the friends of 
both the candidates for the chief executive office of this 
Union, for the ensuing four years, that their respective 
aspirants shall not, by any means whatever, be con- 
sidered Federalists. But in sober earnest we should 
not be amused. 

If by Federalist you mean one who believes that our 
general government has the exclusive and " supreme" 
right under the Federal Constitution, to exercise all the 
powers especially delegated to it by that instrument, 
and all the auxiliary and incidental powers which, in 
honesty and good faith, shall be deemed " necessary 
and proper" to carry these special powers into efficient 
and benificent action ; '^ provided they are not forbid- 
den to the General Government, or reserved to the States 
or to the people ;" then we all should be Federalists. 
If Whiggery means not that — if Democracy means not 
that — if Restrictionism means not that — if Nullification 
means not that — then I am neither Whig, Democrat, 
Restrictionist nor Nullifier, but a Federalist, " and the 
most offending soul alive." 

Why then all this deep solicitude not to be thought 
a Federalist ? Are \ve determined to generate and 
keep aUve feeUngs inamicable to the happiness and to 
the durability of the Union of these States ? Are we 
determined to educate the people in each and every 
State to be NuUifiers in feeling ? Are we resolved that 
our young men shall be raised up with an habitual in- 
disposition from early life, to concede to the General 



^ FEDERALISM. 

Government the free and full exercise of all its legiti- 
mate powers, for the fear of being branded with the odi- 
um of Federalism ? Is the mad dog epithet of Federalist 
to be perpetually held in terrorem by knaves and fools, 
to excite the fears and to warp the understandings of 
the young and inexperienced— to pander to the igno- 
rance and prejudices of the many, and finally to bring 
your system of '' E Pluribus Uiiiim'' back to the 
rope of sand of the old confederacy ? 

Sir, our system of government should in its action 
be eminently educational. If it was founded upon too 
high a scale for the moral and intellectual standard of 
the people at the time of its adoption, continual efforts 
should be made to bring them up to the standard 
which was assumed for them. Can terrifying ap- 
peals, catch-words and political humbuggery do that ! 
Do these produce an enlightened discussion of the 
principles of your form of government, or a dignified 
and patriotic vindication of its true policy ? No, Sir, 
no. On the contrary, as " ye sow shalt thou reap," 
until the " confusion of tongues" shall become worse 
confounded, and our '^ Babel" confederacy, which as- 
pired to heaven, to be a "beacon light" to all nations, 
shall be given up to destruction, and be scattered into 
its original elements. To ward off this dreadful catas- 
trophe the press should be reformed. It should no 
longer be the retained council of party to make virtue 
look like vice, and vice look like virtue. It should 
cease for party purposes to throw dust into the public 
eyes. It should abjure all humbuggery and pohtical 
jockeyship. It should, every where and with " trum- 
pet tongue," proclaim 

Truth! truth! alone, 
" Bear witness earth and heaven," 
Is necessarily benificent to man ; 
And 'twas error potent of mischief, 
That ruined all. 

The writer pretends not to infallibility in his politi- 
cal opinions — " to err is human." But no man should 
" love darkness rather than light," because it is the 



FEDERALISM. O 

true interest of no man, and most certainly of no nation. 
Otherwise heaven would be false. That in mere mat- 
ters of opinion there should be honest and patriotic 
diflerences of sentiment, was to be expected. In fact, 
it rarely happens that truth can be ascertained by a 
"balance or a two foot rule." Like many things very 
valuable, it was ordained to be procured slowly and 
by hard labor in many instances. The toil of patient 
investigation and the collisions of mind, and the inspi- 
rations of spirit-stirring debate, were made necessary 
and for wise purposes to evolve it. But with these, 
proscription, humbuggery and catch-words have no al- 
Hance ; they are employed to excite prejudice — to gull 
the credulous — to mislead the foolish, and not to release 
the understanding from the shackles of the one or the 
frauds of the others. 

Yes, Sir, our government being eminently in its 
practical administration, a government of public 
opinion, these malign influences should be discoun- 
tenanced which mislead and corrupt that public opin- 
ion — which convert it from the true faith into political 
heresies, and necessarily place it under the lead of the 
very worst men in the nation — the desperate and un- 
principled who are willing to generate popular igno- 
rance, prejudice and corruption, in which only they 
can live, move and have an infamous existence. It is 
in this way that a bribe comes in effect to be offered 
to every man in the nation to become a scoundrel in 
conduct, if not in principle, and a rebel to the consti- 
tution of his country. It is in this way that error 
begets error, and corruption begets corruption, until it 
becomes absolutely unpopular to advocate virtue, good 
faith, the rights of property, the continuance of this 
Union, the dignity of the law, the supremacy of the 
constitution, or the obligations of an oath to sustain 
either. It is in this way that we distinctly see the po- 
tency of the press for good or for evil, for weal or for 
wo to this nation. Yes, it was assumed by our fore- 
fathers, when they ordained that it shall be free, that 
it would be patriotic, that it would be honest, that it 



O FEDESALISM. 

would be independent, and hence they declared it to 
be "the bulwark of liberty." But to be thus, it is 
clear that it should be the advocate of principles and 
not of men, of practical truth and not of theoretical or 
popular error — of the good, "the just," and the wise, 
and the terror only of those that do evil. To act other- 
wise is to subvert its purpose, to make it the bulwark 
of party, to address it to the passions, and prejudices 
and ignorance of the people, and not to their under- 
standings. It is to deny the principle of self-government, 
guided by reason, justice, and good faith, and to sub- 
stitute that of an irresponsible majority, called party, 
which can do no wrong. 

Is this the case now ? Is it destined to be the case 
shortly ? Then our experiment of self-government is 
already advancing to a close. It was based upon two 
false assumptions — the virtue and intelligence of the 
people, and the patriotism and independence of the 
press. But, if the affirmative be true, is all lost ? Yes, 
unless the press shall go to the right-about and educate 
themselves and the people up to the true standard of 
civilization and patriotism which old George Wash- 
ington and Ben Franklin assumed for them. If this is 
not done, how can the superstructure stand, if the 
foundation in morals, intelligence, and unflinching re- 
gard for sound pohtical principles, never existed, or is 
being rapidly undermined ? How can it stand when 
the warder on the watch is overawed or bribed, or is 
unwittingly occupied in the sap and mine to overthrow 
it ? ^Tis impossible. Then it behooves the press to 
hegin the reform of the government in the exposition 
and maintenance of sound political principles, regard- 
less of the mad-dog epithets of federalist, or any other 
denunciatory slang halloed by knaves and fools. If 
we are all federalists and all democrats, as Mr. Jefferson 
would say, (if he were alive and had secured his elec- 
tion) then let us so understand it — if not, let this war 
of catch-words end, and come down at once to the 
honest and frank declaration of political faith and the 
full and free discussion of political principles in their 
application to leading political measures. 



FEDERALISM. 7 

This is what the writer would propose attempting 
in some two or three additional numbers. But he 
protests against entering the strife and personaUty of 
party. He has no affinity for that. He would address 
himself to the understanding, and not to the passions. 
He would assume that all desire, as much as he does, 
the discovery oi facts and the support of truth only. 



NO. II. 

Mr. John C. Wright :— >SVr— You are well aware 
that formularies of faith, whether in reUgion or in poli- 
tics, embody professions only. They don't constitute 
religion in the one any more than they do patriotism in 
the other. By their fruits only can ye know them.- 
The writer therefore, in the censures of the press and 
of the times, contained in his first number, and which 
may appear in the subsequent, does not desire to be 
considered better than other men. He is no political 
Pharisee that he would rebuke or revile others to set 
forth his own assumed perfectibility. No, sir ! But as 
the ceremonies of religion contribute to make man act 
right, think right, and feel right towards himself, his 
neighbor and his God; so, "frequent recurrence to funda- 
mental principles" in poUtics, strenuously enjoined by 
the Father of his Country, purifies political sentiment, 
elevates the standard of patriotism among us, and main- 
tains and sharpens that eternal vigilance which detects 
incipient abuse, and stays the subtle ingress of secret, 
silent revolution. 

Although, as remarked in the first number, the wri- 
ter pretends not to iafallibility ; yet he is fearless and 
firm in the opinion. 

First, That the people* of the United States, by the 



* Although the Government of the United States was founded 
in " compacV' or consent or agreement of each State to franoe it, 
yet, it cannot cease to exist by agreement of less than three fourths, 
and is clothed by the people who adopted it through State con* 
ventions elected for the special purpose with a substantive, lode- 



8 FEDERALISM. 

institution of the General Government, ordained them- 
selves to be ONE NATION for certain general purposes, 
set forth in the preamble to the Federal Constitution, 
viz. : " to form a more perfect union, to establish justice, 
ensure domestic tranquillity, to pay the debts, to provide 
for the common defence, to promote the general welfare, 
and to secure the blessings of liberty to themselves and 
posterity." 

Second, To accomplish or secure these general 
objects or purposes, the people further ordained that 
this general government shall be endowed with certain 
enumerated powers, viz. : among others the power to 
declare war and to make peace ; the power to make 
treaties, and the power to regulate commerce with 
foreign nations and " among the several states and 
with the Indian tribes ; the power to lay and collect 
taxes, duties, imposts and excises," for the purpose of 
"paying the debts and to provide for the common 
defence and the general welfare of the United States ;" 
the power ^' to coin money, to regulate the value there- 
of and of foreign coins, and to fix the standard of 
weights and measures ;" the power of exclusive legis- 
lation " in all cases whatsoever over such District, not 
exceeding ten miles square, as may by cession of par- 
ticular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become 
the seat of the General Government of the United 

pendent existence equally with that of the State governments, and 
with all the responsibilities and many of the attributes of delegated 
sovereignty which the states do not possess, and which never can 
be taken from the General Government except by usurpation or 
consent of the people expressed, as provided for in the instrument 
of their adoption. 

The Constitution of the United States therefore is an emanation 
of the people of each State acting in their sovereign capacity to 
form a common Government to guarantee the equal rights and 
common interests of the citizens of the United States, and of the 
States of the confederacy, and for these purposes was endowed 
by the people with unity of character, free agency, supremacy and 
exclusiveness in the sphere ofits action, and with the right to use 

Physical force to preserve its existence and to enforce its volitions, 
n short, it is a responsible political personage acting for the peo- 
ple and for the States from which it emanated. 



FEDERALISM. 9 

States : and finally, under the seventeenth number of 
the eighth section, first article, is given the power to 
make "all laws NECESSARY AND PROPER fi)r car- 
rying into effect the foregoing powers, and all others 
vested by this Constitution in the Government of the 
United States, or in any department or office thereof ;" 
and to provide for the peace and harmony of the Union, 
in the final settlement of all questions of disputed juris- 
diction, and of right and equity arising under the con- 
stitution, the laws of the United States, treaties, &c., 
the whole subject matter was placed by the people 
under the exclusive jurisdiction and adjustment of the 
Judicial power of the United States, by the first num- 
ber of the sixth article of the Federal Constitution, 
which declares that " this constitution and the laws 
made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made or 
which shall be made under the authority of the United 
States, shall be the supreme law of the land, and the 
judges in every state shall be bound thereby, any thing 
in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary 
notwithstanding." 

But to make assurance doubly sure, the people were 
not content with the enunciation of the general pur- 
poses of the Government which they had instituted, 
nor with the specific delegations, limitations and prohi- 
bitions of powers which they had conferred and im- 
posed on it, but in the 

Fourth place, among other things, they ordained 
that " no state shall enter into treaty of alliance or con- 
federation ; grant letters of marque and reprisal ; coin 
money ; emit bills of credit ; make any thing but gold 
and silver coin a tender in payment of debts." Nor 
<• without the consent of Congress lay any imposts or 
duties, on imports or exports except what may be 
absolutely necessary for executing its inspection laws," 
&c. &c. 

But as if to eke out their guards of human rights, 
and to secure and guarantee the successful and happy 
results of the sublime experiment which was then being 
made to bring order outof chaos— strength out of weak- 



10 FEDERALISM. 

ness, and to give unity of government for certain pur- 
poses to thirteen sovereign states, full of patriotism and 
invincible enterprise, the people ordained, in the ninth 
article of the amendment to the Federal Constitution, 
" that the enumeration in this constitution of certain 
rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage 
OTHERS retained ("reserved") by the people.'' And 
the tenth article declares that "the powers not delegated 
to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited 
by|itto the states, are reserved to the states respectively, 
or to the people.'' This tenth article brings us to that 
position in our constitutional analysis at which it is 
necessary to hug the subject to eviscerate the truth, 
and forever to everturn the sophisms with which ig- 
norance, subtlety and demagogism have enveloped, 
and mystified the seventeenth number of the eighth 
section of the first article, and the ninth and tenth arti- 
cles of the amendments. 

It may then, to illustrate this subject, be at once asked 
in the language of the tenth article, what powers are 
« not delegated to the United States by the constitu- 
tion?" Surely the prohibited powers are "not delegated." 
Surely the reserved powers are " not delegated." Sure- 
ly the power to pass unnecessary and improper laws 
is not delegated. But surely all the enumerated powers 
are delegated, and the power " to pass all laws neces- 
sary and proper," to carry them into effect, and all 
others granted by the constitution, is delegated. This 
is incontestible. To contend otherwise would be to 
introduce the word " specially" (proposed by Mr. Lee 
in the Virginia Convention and rejected,) before the 
word " granted" in the tenth article then under consid- 
eration, and thereby to nullify the seventeenth num- 
ber of the eighth section of the first article, above 
quoted. 

It clearly results, then, that the theory of govern- 
ment of the Federal Constitution is displayed in the 
prohibitions, reservations, enumerations, and limitations 
of its powers. Its practice in the full and free exercise 
of ALL the auxiliary powers " necessary" (not indis- 



TEBERALISM. 



XI 



pensable*) as means to ends, and « proper," that is, not 
forbidden or reserved, and in harmony with its theory, 
and promotive of the great general purposes of its 
institution. It farther results, as it should, that the 
Federal Constitution is in part a government of funda- 
mental written principles or rules, and in part a govern- 
ment of j}olicy, or discretion, or choice ; and, finally, 
that it necessarily is, as it is declared to be, <^ supreme," 
and exclusive in the sphere of its action, " the constitu- 
tion and laws of any state to the contrary notwith- 
standing." 

But, sir, we will not deal alone in political abstrac- 
tions ; we will make an application of our political 
formulary and the principles it involves, to the purposes 
of life, and see how they work. We will touch some 
of the disturbing questions which have agitated our 
country, and are destined, unless public opinion is made 
sound and kept sound, to rock it to its centre. We 
will show "to him that runneth," that none of the 
« necessary and proper powers" for the general govern- 
ment to exercise, to make it an enUghtened and bene- 
ficent agency, were intended to be withheld, either 
under the residuary clause of the ninth article, or the 
declarations of the tenth of the amendments. But that 
the words " necessary nad proper," in the seventeenth 
number of the eighth section of the first article qualify 
the reservation of the ninth article and expound the 
declaration of the tenth of the amendments. 

In execution of this purpose, the writer will, first, 
in the next No.,briefly review the cession and purchase 
of Louisiana in the way of preliminary and familiar 
illustration. He will then pass to the tariff and aboli- 
tion, and conclude with the currency question, which 
last he proposes to touch in its ultimate element and 
array of important and irresistible alternatives. 

* The word indispensable is not to be found in the federal con- 
stitution. 



12 FEDERALISM. 



NO. III. 



Mr. John C. Wright : — Sir. — In onr second num- 
ber it was distinctly shown that the people, in organ- 
izing the General Government, incorporated into the 
Federal Constitution four principles essential to its ex- 
istence, as the central and common government, of an 
indefinite number of sovereign States, viz : unity, 
exclusiveness, supremacy, and free agency in the legiti- 
mate sphere of its action, and fo^^ the purposes of its 
creation. It was farther shown that the great outline 
of its sphere of action is naturally inscribed in the gen- 
eral purposes of its institution, set forth in the preamble 
to the Federal Constitution, but more particularly 
marked out and defined by the enumeration, and limi- 
tation and prohibition of powers specifically made, 
save and except the powers turned over to its DISCRE- 
TION under the general grants of the sixteenth and 
seventeenth numbers of the eighth section of the first 
article, limited by the words '' necessary and proper.^' 

In testing, therefore, the legitimacy of any particular 
measure of the General Government — as for example, 
the purchase of Louisiana, the question may at once 
be asked, is the power to purchase or to acquire for- 
eign territory in any way reserved to the States ? No! 
On the contrary, in the first article of the tenth section, 
the states are prohibited to " enter into any treaty ;'^ and 
in the second, they are again inhibited to enter into 
any agreement or compact with another state or foreign 
power. Is it " reserved to the people V^ No, not by 
enumeration. Is it expressly delegated to the Congress, 
or prohibited ? No ! But is it a nonenumerated, 
" retained" power by the people under the ninth article 
of the amendments? That is the only point to be de- 
cided. Discovering, then, that the power to purchase 
or to seize foreign territory in war, and to retain it in 
peace, is not contained in the enumerated powers dele- 
gated to the General Government, we at once come 
irresistibly to the conclusion, that neither the purchase 



FEDERALISM. 13 

t>t seizure (ian be made constitutionally to gratify na- 
tional ambition, or national avarice, or individual glory, 
or to extend the bounds of the confederacy solely to 
propagate free principles in government ? No ! the 
people have given no power for such purposes. There 
must be some more urgent if not higher motive for ac- 
tion. There must be peculiar considerations of policy, 
based essentially in great and enduring national inter- 
ests, connected whh its internal harmony, its integrity, 
its commerce, its peace and safety, to make it a " neces- 
sary cmd proper" measure and a legitimate incident of 
either the war-making, or the treaty-making, or the 
commercial power, as the character of the expedient 
consideration may in the particular case happen to be. 
But to illustrate this important matter still farther, 
we will suppose the proposition was now made to 
purchase the Islands of Ceylon, Madagascar, or Cuba, 
or to seize the great naval station of Halifax and Pro- 
vince of Nova Scotia, under the war-making power, 
and hold them as colonies. Could its necessity and 
its propriety be at all shown to exist at this time ? 
Certainly not. But will any one assert that that ne- 
cessity and propriety never can, under any change of 
circumstances, come to exist, and especially in rela- 
tion to the latter and to the great southern anti-arctic 
continent ? I augur not. Yes sir, the day the treaty 
purchasing Louisiana, was ratified by the Senate of the 
United States, and concurred in by the people of this 
country, they forever decided that the General Govern- 
ment of this nation has two sets of powers, the enu- 
merated and the auxiliary, and to which last they have 
affixed the words "necessary and proper,'^ as the 
only constitutional limitations. This is history, other- 
wise it would be called Federalism, and the memory 
of Mr, Jefferson blasted for political heresy, which is 
now immortaUzed for political usurpation.* 

♦ It is obvious that the discretionary power given to Congress 
by the xvi. number of the viii. section, first article, " to legislate in 
all cases whatsoever" for the District of Columbia, is in like man- 
ner limited by the words " necessary and proper," contained in 
2 



14 FEDERALISM. 

But, sir, we will pass from this familiar historical 
illustration, to the vexed question of the Tariff, which 
it will help us to elucidate. And here let it be said, 
once for all, that we want nothing but our principles, 
and the facts in relation to a Tariff, more or less pro- 
tective, for it is a question of more or less, to do that 
perfectly. For it is clear that the eighth section of the 
Federal Constitution gives the power to impose a Ta- 
riff exclusively to Congress, and forbids the power to 
the States, except what may be " absolutely necessary 
for executing their inspection laws." But it is equally 
certain, that for the purpose of securing equality and 
justice, it is delegated with very important Umitations 
or restrictions. 

First, no tax or duty shall be laid on articles export- 
ed from any State. Second, no preference shall be 
given by any regulation of commerce or revenue, to 
the ports of one State over those of another. Third, 
Nor shall vessels bound to or from any State, be 
obUged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another. Fourth, 
That all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform 
throughout the United States ; and Fifth, That the 
proceeds of all taxes, duties, imposts and excises, thus 
fairly and equally collected, shall be " to pay the debts 
and to provide for the common defence and the general 
welfare." So far it seems incontestible that the whole 
revenue power by duties, imposts and excises, is exclu- 
sively delegated to Congress. But the transcendently 
important question raised is, has Congress the right to 
impose duties, not for the purpose of necessary reve- 
nue only, but for the purpose of ^^ protection ;" first of 
the nation against the evils of excessive importation of 
foreign manufactured goods, and second, of particular 

the succeeding article of the same section which refers to all dis- 
cretionary power which Congress in the practice of the Govern- 
ment is and raust be necessarily called upon from time to time 
to exercise, whether in the District or out ot it. The power of 
legislation in any case never vests unless it is specially granted 
or can be proved to be " necessary and proper" to accomplish a 
legitimate end or delegated object. 



FEDERALISM. 15 

departments of labor and capital, against the over- 
whelming competition of foreign labor and capital ? 

In reply it may be answered, that it is clear that no 
distinct enumerated power is given to Congress to allow 
drawbacks, or to impose discriminating duties in favor 
of domestic tonnage for the general benefit of the na- 
tion, and for the peculiar protection and benefit of the 
shipping interest. Yet it was done in the foundation 
of our commercial policy, and rightfully done under 
the sanction of the general obligation and conservative 
power imposed and conferred upon Congress, to do 
that for the states of the confederacy, which, in their 
individual capacities, they could and would have done 
for themselves : but which in their confederate capa- 
city, they cannot individually perform, and which 
therefore, they necessarily devolve upon their general 
government to do for them. That government being 
the exclusive depositum of the great commercial, reve- 
nue, and war-making powers of the Union, is alone 
competent, as it was thereby constituted to be, to take 
charge of the general interests to be sustained or pro- 
tected through the vigorous and judicious administra- 
tion of those powers. But it must be of the general 
interests and " the common welfare" only, and not of 
partial interests and of local individual welfare at the 
expense of the principles of justice. It must be to do 
equal justice or rather not to do injustice. Its com- 
mission is not to make fish of one part of the commu- 
nity, and fowl of another," but, " with equal eye as" 
the government of all to pursue the injunction which 
pervades the Federal Constitution in relation to the exer- 
cise of the whole revenue power, that it shall be just, 
" uniform," and equal in its imposition, collection and 
appropriation, as far as may be. To the extent then 
that Congress can exercise the revenue power to pro- 
tect the labor and the capital of the country upon these 
principles, they certainly have the right and are bound 
to do so, whether that labor and that capital is employ- 
ed on the ocean or on the land. 

Assuming then that Congress have the entire sove- 



16 FEDERALISM. 

reign power over the subject matter of the tariff, which 
none will deny, and assuming that a high tariff is ne- 
cessary to protect the nation against the excesses of 
foreign importations, and the northern manufacturer 
against the overwhelming competition of foreign capi- 
tal and intrigue, and pauper labor %o destroy him ; yet 
it may be asked, is it " proper" through a high tariff" 
of protection, to bring a large surplus revenue into the 
national treasury, beyond the wants of an economical 
administration of the general government, and is it just 
and '« proper" to tax the producers of the whole coun- 
try in their consumption to accomplish the above pur- 
poses ? It may be answered most unhesitatingly, NO t 
But it is denied by the advocates of '^ a judicious'^ 
tariff, that it would bring a large surplus revenue into- 
the Treasury, or tax the northern and southern con- 
sumer at an extra rate beyond the first moments of its 
action. On the contrary, it is contended that experi- 
ence demonstrates that low duties and a depreciated 
currency bring all the excesses of revenue and over- 
trading, irregularity of prices, destruction of domestic 
competition, monopoly of the home market by foreign 
producers, and ultimate high prices to the domestic 
consumer over and above those of the temporary en- 
hancement of incipient protection. That to give full 
and certain possession of the domestic market to do- 
mestic labor and capital by a "judicious tariff" and a 
sound currency always at par with gold and silver, will 
be to effect a more equal distribution of the national 
labor and capital \ to steady prices by creating and 
securing on a firm basis of national protection and 
finance an equal and constantly operating domestic 
competition, and thereby to establish a fair ratio of pro- 
fit, the necessary effect of inviting and fixing capital 
and labor from abroad and at home in the permanent 
occupations of the country to supply its increasing de- 
mands. 

If the above be facts, then there can be no doubt 
that Congress have the power, and should exercise it^ 
for the " general good and the common welfare," one 



FEDERALISM. 17 

of the avowed objects for which the taxing power was 
delegated to Congress, and the only constitutional sanc- 
tion, as was above conclusively shown, (or that made 
it "necessary and proper'') to tax the people of the 
United States ^15,000,000 for the purchase of Louis- 
iana. But it is positively denied that under the exist- 
ing SYSTEM of banking in this country, Congress can 
establish an efficient system of protection. It is posi- 
tively asserted, that a monetary system of depreciation 
necessarily is incompatible with a permanent system 
of protection. Congress may indeed estabhsh a sys- 
tem of protection on the statute book, but it will be 
overthrown and necessarily neutralized in the market 
by the depreciated currency issued by an indefinite 
number of banks of circulation and accommodation, 
acting in no concert, and in which the foreign competi- 
tor sells and realizes in gold and silver, or in cotton, 
&c. at Liverpool prices, but in which he does not pro- 
duce. 

But these remarks very naturally lead the writer to 
the third subject, which he proposed to bring to the 
test of the principles contained in his formulary of po- 
litical faith, viz: the Currency. But he will beg leave 
to take up that and the subject of Abolition in the next 
number. 



NO. IV. 

Mr. John C. Wright : Sir, — You will recollect 
that in our third number we reduced the difficulty in 
relation to the Tariff of protection to a matter of fact, 
or rather to a question of fact, and came decisively to 
the conclusion to which every patriot must be happy to 
arrive, that in the event it is true, as its friends contend, 
that a ^''judicious tariff'' of protection will not neces- 
sarily work inequality and injustice to different sec- 
tions of this country ; nor produce extravagance and 
corruption in the expenditures of the government 
2* 



18 FEDERALISM. 

through a large surplus revenue; nor sacrifice the ex- 
port producer for the pecuUar benefit of the domestic 
manufacturer, it should be favored by all. Yes ! if by 
checking excess of importations, it checks excess of 
revenue — if by insuring the domestic market to domes- 
tic labor and capital, it thereby eifects its more equal 
distribution and permanent investment — if by estab- 
lishing steady home competition, it establishes steady 
home prices, the very assurance of which will quickly 
equalize the ratio of profit in the protected interests 
with other occupations of capital and labor, and by 
growing up a market at home, in which all can either 
sell or buy, the very best guarantee will then be given 
for independence and plenty in peace, and vigor and 
invincibility in war. But you will recollect it was 
likewise confidently and fearlessly asserted, that these 
very desirable purposes cannot be effected under our 
present system of currency — that the syste,m of banks 
of accommodation* and circulation is essentially a sys- 
tem of alternate depreciation and appreciation — and 
that depreciation in the currency is absolutely incom- 
patible with a permanent and efficient system of pro- 
tection. In fact, it might have been asserted that the 
sum of the depreciation at any time, of your domestic 
currency, over and above the nominal amount of your 
protective duty, is the premium offered to. foreign la- 
bor in your currency to overthrow your domestic labor 
— for turn it as you will, the true issue is not between 

* The writer forbears to trespass on the patience of those who 
may peruse these articles, to demonstrate that banks of "accommo- 
dation" are necessarily banks of depreciation. The history of 
France, England^ Ireland, and this country^ prove it, to say no- 
thing of the universal concurrence of all writers from Adam Smith 
to the present day. It is therefore assumed, in these communica- 
tions, as likewise that their paper may be depreciated whilst all the 
banks pay specie, which, together with the paper, becomes de- 
preciated, and for that reason begins to leave the country. Hence 
contractions and suspensions follow in the train of depreciation 
as necessary consequences ; and hence " the winter of our dis- 
conl-ent,*' which ever follows inflation as the inevitable alterna- 
tives. It is history^ and therefore it was unnecessary to pfove it. 



FEDERALISM. 19 

the American laborer and the American capitaUst — 
it is not the issue of high wages and low wages be- 
tween them. No, sir; but the true issue is of life and 
death between American labor sustained by American 
capital, and foreign labor sustained by foreign capital. 
Break down your domestic capitalist and what be- 
comes of yaur domestic laborer? It is self-evident; and 
that presents the true issue to which you come at last. 
Their reciprocal dependance and connection is that of 
the " belly and the limbs,'^ and the policy that would 
separate them in this struggle, is consummately wicked 
or most egregiously foolish. 

Nor is this by any means confined to the domestic 
manufacturer, commonly so called. It is clear that the 
producer in every department of labor, both southern 
and northern, whether he struggle to keep or to ac- 
quire the domestic, or to keep or acquire a foreign mar- 
ket, is bound to diminish the cost of production, either 
in the nominal price of the material and labor em- 
ployed^ or in the " effectiveness^'' of the aj)plication of 
labor, or yield the struggle. Can the producer of su- 
gar, or of cotton, or of tobacco, or of hemp, or of flour, 
any more than the manufacturer of a yard of cotton or 
broadcloth, or a pound of iron, do this in a depreciated 
and depreciating currency ? No ! Yau might as soon 
expect the mercury to fall in a thermometer in the 
month of July, under a hot southwest wiod, as the cost 
of production in any thing to fall in a country under 
such a system of periodical excitement, speculation and 
inflation. -^ 

But it is equally true that the workings of the sys- 
tem not only strike at the root of productive industry 
in the deep and irresistible manner above demonstra- 
ted; but that it likewise necessarily works injustice, 
and has withered, is withering, and will destroy the 
public morals. Can that system be just and moral 
which periodically adulterates the currency by the 
alloy of depreciation, and makes a wreck of private 
credit, of private fortune, and of private honor? which 
alternately appreciates and depreciates a man's capital; 



20 FEDERALISM. 

depreciates or appreciates his debts; enriches him to- 
day or beggars him to-morrow; and finally involves 
the whole commmiity in all the consequences of the 
black frauds and dirty frauds of big paper and little 
paper, the legerdemain of financiering and the avari- 
cious gamblings of greedy speculation? Impossible! 
Can the workings of that system be just or moral which 
" corners'^ a whole nation and the gallant members of 
this confederacy; which creates the supposed necessity 
of violating private and pub he faith, and of trampling 
the laws and the constitution of the country under foot, 
as was supposed to exist formerly in 1819-20-21, and 
as is supposed to exist now? No sir, no! But further, 
can that system be constitutional which works the 
destruction of productive industry; subverts the prin- 
ciples of justice; overturns the public morals and tram- 
ples upon the law, and therem defeats the great cardi- 
nal purposes of your general government, which, as 
above shown, are to establish justice, insure domestic 
tranquillity, and provide for the common defence and 
promote the general welfare ? Incontestibly not! But 
the principles of our formulary of political faith shall 
prove it on the record of the parchment. 

You will recollect it was shown in my second num- 
ber, that the constitution of the United States had set- 
tled the question, " that the state governments have no 
jurisdiction whatever over the commerce of the coun- 
try, with foreign nations nor among the states,^' nor 
over the instruments of that commerce, weights, mea- 
sures and money — that the whole sovereign power 
over the commerce of the confederacy, and over its 
indispensable instruments, weights, measures, and 
money, which the states held and had exercised under 
the old articles of the confederation, had been yielded 
up " ex vi termini,^^ with the abolition of that system 
or government, to the ONE government, created by 
the people for the great cardinal purposes first named 
in the Constitution, and for the successful execution of 
which, the people conferred upon that government cer- 
tain enumerated powers, and the general grant of 



FEDERALISM. 21 

power " to pass all laws necessary and proper," and 
imposed upon the state governments certain enumera- 
ted restrictions — that among the enumerated powers 
conferred upon the General Government, is the exclu- 
sive power to coin, that is to manufacture or stamp 
and "to regulate" the national measure of value; and 
that among the enumerated powers " forbidden to the 
States" is the right to "coin money, and to emit bills 
of credit." But says the zealous advocate of "state 
rights," the states neither " coin money" nor " emit 
bills of credit." Granted. But they coin bank notes. 
But, says another, bank notes are not money. Grant- 
ed. But they are on their face a promissory, and of 
course, "credit" currency, and so designed to be. But, 
says a third, they are nevertheless neither technically 
nor historically " bills of credit." Granted. But they 
are contracts to pay money, equally with " bills of 
credit," and they are authorized by the states to cir- 
culate as money, and to substitute money or the na- 
tional measure of value. Is not the distinction, there- 
fore, between bank notes and " bills of credit," a " dis- 
tinction without a difference?" But, says a fourth, 
bank notes are issued, not by the states, but by corpo- 
rations, and the states have the exclusive right to grant 
charters of incorporation. Siu-ely, not to do unconsti- 
tutional acts. That would be contrary to common 
sense; contrary to a fundamental aphorism in morals, 
and a well settled principle in law, " that what I cant 
do myself lawfully, I cant do by an agent or another." 
But it is alleged that " bills of credit," technically 
and historically so called, and bank notes, are essen- 
tially different from each other. That the former (bills 
of credit) are " based upon the credit of a state ; the 
latter, bank notes, are based on capital." That al- 
though the former are forbidden by the constitution to 
the states, the latter are not; ergo (therefore) the states 
have the "reserved sovereign right" to issue bank 
notes. But is it not clear that this allegation is itself 
based upon two false assumptions ? First, Is it not 
perfectly clear on the face of every bank note that it is 



22 FEDERALISM. 

based on credit? Is it not a promise to pay money? 
Is it not through faith (credit) in this promise that it 
lives, moves, and has its existence or circulation? Could 
it ever get out of the bank, were not credit in the first 
instance attached to its promise to pay? Will it not in- 
stantly return, when discredited, to seek the fulfilment 
of its promise? In fine, is not credit the very leverage 
of bank influence, and of all paper money? 

But second: Was it not known to the enlightened 
" committee on Federal relations" of the South Caroli- 
na legislature, that bank notes are not only *' bills of 
credit" on their /«ce, and by consequence, as is above 
shown, but essentially and intentionally so in their 
inception? It was known to them; it is known to the 
whole commercial world, that two thirds of the circu- 
lation of a bank authorized by its charter of incorpo- 
ration to issue three for one is necessarily based on 
the credit, good faith, and ultimate solvency of its 
debtors, and that if these fail, the bank suspends, and 
the holders of its contract, credit currency, lose the 
whole amount over and above its specie capital.* Call 
you not this credit? But I am to be told it is not ^'state 
credit!" I am to be told it is the credit of private in- 
dividuals! I am to be told that although the state gov- 
ernments are forbidden to erect state credit into public 
currency, they are not forbidden to erect private cred- 
it into public currency. I am, in fine, to be told, that 
what the states cant do constitutionally by themselves, 
they have done and can do by another! ! ! But this is 
neither the morality of the Bible, nor of the Federal 
Constitution; nor is it common sense, nor "common 
law." 

But to make the true issue and to place this tran- 

* This is farther illustrated by the late report of the condition 
of the much vaunted safety fund banks of New York. The comp- 
troler says, that in round numbers, their capital in specie was 
$5,000,000; their circulation $15,000,000, and their deposits 
$17,000,000. The former is their means in hand. The two lat- 
ter, $32,000,000, their immediate responsibilities, is more than 
six for one ! 



FEDERALISM. 23 

scendently important matter beyond all cavil, the fed- 
eral constitution itself shall furnish the illustration. In 
the same tenth section, in which the states are forbid- 
den to "coin money," and to "emit bills of credit," 
they are forbidden to grant " letters of marque and re- 
prisal." Will it be pretended that in time of war the 
state of Massachusetts could create a corporation and 
constitutionally endow it (not with the right "to grant 
letters of marque and reprisal," technically and histo- 
rically, so called) but with a corporate privilege in the 
way of monopoly, and for the individual benefit of the 
corporators to make profits by cruising ^^vi et armis^^ 
or under some other " covin or device," which could 
not technically nor historically be called "letters of 
marque and reprisal ?" No! public feeling and public 
sentiment every where would revolt at it? Would not 
the doings and proceedings of such a company on the 
ocean, although under the sovereign authority of Mas- 
sachusetts, be regarded as piracy? Can the states do 
that by covin and device in relation to their ordained 
constitutional measure of value, the very sinew of war, 
and the pabulum of the "imposts and direct taxes," 
which the law of nations would not sanction in the 
state of Massachusetts, in the supposed case, but re- 
gard as an infraction of the Federal Constitution, and 
therefore piracy on the high seas? Can the state of 
Massachusetts in any way do that by a corporation in 
relation to this matter, which she could not do by her- 
self? NO ! Nor have the states the power to erect 
the private credit of corporations, (bank notes,) into 
public currency, any more than they have their own 
state credit, (or promises to pay,) into public currency. 
The power to do so, as was above remarked, belonged 
to another system of government, which was abolished 
by the adoption of the Federal Constitution, and the 
three banks then existing, were ^^ ijjso facto^^ nullified. 
And to this conclusion we are inevitably brought by 
the conclusive consideration that bank notes are either 
money or credit. If money — the states are forbidden 
to coin them. If credit, (promises to pay,) they are 



^4 I^EDERALISM. 

forbidden to issue (emit) them as currency, to do the 
offices of money independent of the power "to regu- 
late" it, conferred and iniposed expressly on the Gen- 
eral Government by the Federal Constitution. 

But farther, to infer the power on the part of the 
states to bank from the constitutional prohibition only 
not "to make anything but gold and silver coin a teji- 
der in the payment of debts, is equivalent to that con- 
struction which would give Massachusetts the power 
to endow her commercial marine, or any portion there- 
of, with the right to make money by driving an armed 
navigation and commerce on the ocean in time of war 
independent of Congress, Provided she should not to 
that end " issue letters of marque and reprisal." It is 
self evident to all that the privilege, however ingeni- 
ously devised and carefully guarded, would necessarily 
resolve itself into piratical privateering by all the states 
and therein violate the Federal Constitution and in- 
vade the war making power, exclusively delegated to 
Congress, as state banking has resolved itself into the 
emission (not of "post notes" only having a definite 
length of time to run by agreement) but into that 
which is worse, bank notes, which, through the illimit- 
able suspension of specie payments already counte- 
nanced and habitual, are become de facto depreciated 
" bills of credit," substituting money, and therein in- 
vade the sovereign power of coining or the exclusive 
right confessedly conferred upon Congress to furnish 
this nation with a uniform measure of value, and with 
the exclusive right to "regulate" and govern it. 

The just inference, therefore, from the prohibition 
to the states not to make any thing else but " gold and 
silver coin a tender in the payment of debts," is that 
the states are thereby restricted to that power alone in 
relation to the measure of vahie,and not that it implies 
the right to exercise all other power in relation to a 
paper medium except making it a " tender," no mat- 
ter how inconsistent it may be proved to be in its 
workings in relation to the discharge of that very im- 
portant duty imposed upon the states themselves touch- 



FEDERALISM. 25 

ing the constitutional obligation to enforce the pay- 
ment of debts in "gold and silver coin-^ only, and with 
the ends and purposes of the exclusive delegation to 
Congress of the right '^ to coin money and to regulate 
the value thereof "and of foreign coin." The truth is, 
neither the people nor the states can rightfully retain 
or exercise any power under the ninth article of the 
amendments to the Federal Constitution, the exercise 
of which is either in terms {^'ex vi termini,^') or by 
necessity ^" ex neccessitate rei^'J already delegated 
to the General Government or prohibited to them to 
exercise. This is deemed incontestible. But it is his- 
tory in this country, and iioiv of ocular demonstration, 
that the exercise on the part of the states of the in- 
dependent, irresponsible power of banking has pro- 
duced and is producing the following effects : 

1. It has very much crippled if not annihilated in 
practice the constitutional purposes of the mint. 

2. It has dissolved the Federal Union, qzto ad the 
established national measures of value, in destroying 
the identity, uniformity and continuity of the moneta- 
ry circulation of the confederacy. 

3. It has destroyed not only the unity of the gov- 
ernment of the measure of value contemplated by the 
Federal Constitution, by already substituting twenty- 
six governments or regulators thereof, but has broken 
the national circulation into 900 circulations infinitely 
diversified in every possible particular. 

4. For and on account of the failure of common 
government, uniformity of regulation, concert of ac- 
tion and effective responsibility, there is not and never 
can be again, neither among the people nor the state 
banks themselves, confidence in the existing system 
nor in any other which shall be compounded of usurpa- 
tion in its inception and depreciation in its action. It 
is therefore defunct except in its nakedness ; and it is 
the true interest and duty of banks and all to co-oper- 
ate in its reform., and not in the resuscitation of this 
financial monster again to feed upon the " success et 
sanguinem?^ of the body politic and the patriotism 

3 



26 FEDERALISM. 

and morals of the country. It is a rebel against the 
constitution — wrong in principle and therefore never 
can be right in practice. 

But this ^^rac^zca/ demonstration of the unconstitu- 
tional workings of the system should have been fore- 
seen from the beginning. "^^ The claim that would give 
the states the sovereign right of furnishing a currency 
which they are Ibrbidden by the Federal Constitution to 
make "a tender'" iu the discharge of debts or a legal 
instrument in the commercial transactions of the coun- 
try, is an absurdity in theory. It is, as contended for, 
a sovereign right without legitimate end — a sovereign 
power without purpose, which can be avowed or en- 
forced — a claim to do that which one part of the com- 
munity have avowedly the right to thwart, and the 
other to favor and promote. In fine, it sets up the 
absurd doctrine that the exercise of a sovereign right 
or power can, in any case, depend for its execution 
upon the option of another, or the volition of individ- 
ual citizens or subjects of the sovereign. 

The sovereign power to furnish an instrument of 
commerce, viz : "the yard sticV necessarily carries 
with it the power to enforce or legalize its employ- 
ment, and to conclude all the transactions between in- 
dividuals in which that authenticated instrument shall 
have been employed. 

But the Federal Constitution says, in so many words, 
that no state shall " make any thing but gold and sil- 
ver coins a tender in the payment of debts." Is it not 
then absurd to set up the pretension of sovereign pow- 
er without legitimate end ? Is it not absurd to claini 
the sovereign right of furnishing a jjaper measure of 



* It is a remarkable fact in the history of old sober ploddingVir- 
ginia, that she resisted the innovation of State banking and mod- 
ern paper money long since the writer was a boy, and until she 
was told by Wm. B. Giles, and some others, that she too must 
adopt the ^'■antagonistic''' states right policy, and have her own 
banks ; otherwise " the banks of Maryland and North Carolina 
would heap their paper over her." It was then she determined to 
set up for herself, and the Bank of Virginia was chartered. 



FEDERALISM. 27 

value, by " engraving," or in any other way, without 
being able to legalize or enforce its use among the citi- 
zens or subjects of the government claiming the sove- 
reign right of legislation in the premises ? But is it not 
still more absurd in a confederacy of states under one 
common government, with one commerce and one 
money only for that commerce, which all are compel- 
led to recognize as lawful, to institute an infinite varie- 
ty which none can "regulate," either by statute at 
home among their own citizens, or by treaty with 
their sister states, to recognize its functions among 
them ? Surely there cannot be two opinions upon this 
subject. " To form a more perfect union," it was 
necessary to establish one commerce and one money: 
to impair that union, is to divide and to weaken its 
commercial intercourse; and to destroy it altogether, 
is to create one money for each state, and a distinct 
money for the government. They will all become es- 
sentially and incurably antagonistic, and from being 
financial and commercial, they will become political 
rivals. It was to prevent this very state of things 
which was then threatened, that the original deposi- 
tories of the sovereign powers of this Union, conferred 
upon the General Government the exclusive power "to 
regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among 
the States, and with the Indian tribes;" and the power 
to " fix and determine the uniformity of weights and 
measures ;" and "to coin money, regulate the value 
thereof and of foreign coins," reserving or excepting out 
of these general grants in relation to commerce and 
money but two powers, viz: the power to enact in- 
spection laws, and to establish inspections, and the 
power to make gold and silver coin only a tender in 
the payment of debts. Will it be pretended then by 
the advocates for state rights, that the states "reserv- 
ed" any thing else in relation to commerce and mo- 
ney? Will it be pretended that they can make pajoer 
money, seeing that they cannot enforce or legitimate 
its use — seeing that it is means without end — seeing 
tliat it is the exercise of power without constitution- 



28 FEDERALISM. 

al purpose — seeing that they have reserved no other 
rights (in relation to commerce and money) than those 
enumerated — and lastly, seeing the ruinous effects 
above shewn of the usurpation and destruction of the 
Unity of Government contemplated for these, by in- 
dependent irresponsible state banking. Surely not! 
To claim it therefore as a "reserved right," is begging 
the question— it is assuming that which is denied " in 
toto ceolo.^^ 

But this reserved sovereign right of independent 
state banking on the part of the states is rendered still 
more anomalous and absurd when its advocates yield its 
exercise to the restraining protective operation of either 
a national bank, or a bankrupt law passed by Congress 
to preserve "the constitutional currency,'^ which they 
are bound to protect. If the states have the right to 
bank, it is a sovereign right, and by the very terms is 
necessarily exclusive and supreme in its sphere; or it 
is not sovereign. This is clear and incontestible. As- 
suming then that the Congress of the U. States have the 
right and are in duty bound to take care of the " consti- 
tutional currency," to preserve it uniform, and especial- 
ly to prevent its becoming merchandize, and its expul- 
sion from the circulation and the substitution of 
depreciated state bank paper, and to this end have 
the right and are in duty bound to pass " uniform laws 
of bankruptcy," to embrace the " bankrupt banks," as 
well as the bankrupt "traders ;" is it not clear that the 
sovereign right claimed for the states to furnish paper 
money and the resulting sovereign right of exclusive 
regulation thereof, is incompatible with the assumed du- 
ties and rights of the General Government in the prem- 
ises ? Is it not perfectly clear that the sovereign rights 
of the one cannot harmonize either in theory or prac- 
tice with the sovereign powers and duties of the other? 
And does not this view of the subject involve many of 
our leading statesmen in all the inexplicable maizes of 
inconsistency, if not contradiction, as the whole course 
of policy which has been and is still being pursued in- 
volves the best interests of the country in all the ruin- 



FEDERALISM. 



29 



ous consequences of such conflicting principles and em- 
pirical practice. 

Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster, it is believed, concede 
the sovereign right of state banking, but would govern 
its exercise by and through a strong national bank. Mr. 
Van Buren, Mr. Wright, and Mr. Benton, concede the 
same sovereign right to the states, but denying the con- 
stitutionality of a national bank, claim the right of con- 
trol by the General Government, by and through a bank- 
rupt law. Whereas Mr. Clay of Alabama, and Mr. 
Calhoun of South Carolina, more consistent in the here- 
sy of independent irresponsible state banking, have 
forgotten that the latter would formerly " unbank the 
banks," but noto denies all power of interference what- 
ever on the part of Congress with " this reserved sove- 
reign right" of the states to iinmint the mintsJ^ 

But to illustrate still further the absurdity of this 
claim to interfere with the '-measure" of value on the 
part of the states, founded on their reserved right to 
create paper money, by independent state banking, an 
example may be taken from the ivorks of the Supreme 
Being, \\\\\c\ are always consistent, or in harmony with 
each other. Money, in the discharge of its functions, as 
the aiedium of exchange and the instrument of com- 
merce, has been figuratively, and with great propriety, 
denominated the " circulation." In the organization of 
the human body, the Supreme Being might have estab- 
lished a plurality of hearts to maintain and govern its 

* The latter gentlemen are apprehensive that if a national bank 
charter is CTrnnted on the principle of rioht in Congress to control 
the action of the stale banks ; or a bankrupt law is passed avow- 
edly as means to the same end, they will overturn the principle of 
stain sovereiarnty in the premises, and settle the question of su- 
presuacy for'ever. Did the 1,200,000 voters mean that'?^ or did 
they strike blind to reproduce inflation and high paper prices — to 
iiicrfasH the*wanrps of labor, the expenses of living, the costs of 
prnducfion, excessive foreign importations and stock-jobbing, and 
shaviiigr, and o-ainbiing speculations, in disordered credit and ul- 
timate [)rosiration'? Surely not ! 

It would be madness sheer, 
To run the dirty muck again. 
3* 



30 FEDERALISM. 

circulation. He might have placed one in the head, one 
in each foot, one in each hand, one in the abdomen, and 
one in the thorax or breast. But he did not do this, 
because it would have vastly encumbered the human 
body and complicated its economy. He did not choose 
to do this, because it would have been inconsistent with 
the workings of the beautiful system of sanguification 
and for the decarbonization of the blood by which the 
homogenity and the purification of that important 
fluid are constantly maintained under the adopted sys- 
tem. He did not choose to do this because the j)lural' 
ity of government which would necessarily have re- 
sulted from the independent action of half dozen hearts 
would have constantly jeopardized the harmony and the 
balance of the circulation, producing irregularity in the 
distribution of the vital fluid and consequent congestions, 
collapses, and ultimate prostration. He therefore with 
equal wisdom, consistency, and simplicity, ordained that 
the CIRCULATION, being a community interest^ in 
which all the members of the body corporal were deep- 
ly and equally concerned, should be an unit^ both in 
the elaboration of the blood and in its government; and 
placed them under the control of one heart, and posted 
that heart in the centre of the body corporal. Whether 
the sage architects of the Federal Constitution had this 
sublime example in view when they framed that immor- 
tal instrument, we are not advised: but it is evident, if 
they had not the example of the Deity in their "minds' 
eye,'' that they acted with intuitive wisdom to the same 
end, when they placed the whole subject matter of com- 
merce, and the great instrument of that commerce, m,o- 
ney, (the '^ succus et sanguinem''^ of the body politic) 
under the exclusive control of the central government, 
the heart of this confederacy. 

But, if at the close of the revolution of 1776, the 
confederacy had been entirely dissolved; if each of the 
thirteen states had erected itself into a distinct indepen- 
dent nation, with its own separate interests of commerce, 
of finance, of peace, and of war, then each state should 
have had, and would now have, its own peculiar com- 



FEDERALISM. 31 

mercial regulations; its own distinct and independent mo- 
netary czVct«/«^2on and system of finance predicated there- 
on, and its own control of all questions of peace and of 
war. But such was not the issue of the glorious and suc- 
cessful contest for liberty. Such was not the advice of 
George Washington and the patriots who had periled 
their fortunes and their lives to purchase it : such was 
not the choice of the people of that Union which has 
been not unaptly compared to a "rope of sand." But 
sensible of its weakness, and of the source of their fam- 
ily discords: sensible that their union and liberty were 
inseparably united, and that that union could not be 
maintained without the establishment of a common 
government, which should be endowed with the su- 
preme and exclusive administration of their great com.- 
tnunity interests, and especially of the interests of com- 
merce, of money, of peace, and of war; they therefore 
ordained that for these purposes they should be " one 
NATION,^' with one commerce, one money, one peace, 
one war, and one government for these. Shall we de- 
part that great principle of unity in the great interest 
of the monetary circulation^ and not feel that every 
thing is in chaos, and is going from bad to worse ? Are 
we not at this very moment distracted and discredited 
in our commerce at home (^' among the states") and pa- 
ralized in our energies for war from abroad? And why? 
not because the General Government is in debt; for that 
was «// paid : not because the nation is exhausted by 
war; for we have had more than twenty )^ears of peace: 
not because our people are without enterprise, for that 
is proverbial: not because their soil is impoverished, or 
their climate changed; for they are not surpassed: not 
because their commerce is excluded the ocean; for that 
extends to the four quarters of the globe. No sir! no! 
But it is because their CIRCULATION— the represen- 
tative of their resources, is poisoned by a depreciated 
credit currency, and broken into infinite fragments of 
corporation control under state authority, and through 
them the integrity of their national Union, and the en- 
ergy of their national government already threatened 
with destruction. 



32 FEDERALISM. 

Is it not therefore most consummately absurd that we 
should attempt to justify the policy of independent state 
banking, so repugnant as it is above proved to be to the 
princivle of unity of government for the monetary 
circulation, coincident with an example so perfect and 
sublime and incorporated into our fundamental code 
of political law by men so wise and patriotic as were 
the framers of the Federal Constitution? Is it not prepos- 
terous that a power should be assumed for the states as 
a " reserved right," which is thus shown by both reason 
and experience to be theoreticaUy wrong and practically 
ruinous, and which, under the assumed power to " en- 
grave" bank notes, and to issue them " adlihitutn^^ ne- 
cessarily and in practice usurps the control " defactd^^ of 
the measure of value, and through it of the Treasury, and 
the commerce " am^ong the states," which confessedly 
belong " dejure^^ to the Congress of the United States?* 
Yet such is the history of the times, and the extraordi- 

* Strictly speaking, it is perhaps not correct to say, as in the 
text, that the state governments do in fact govern the currency. 
It is history that the banks govern it, and that the state legisla- 
tures every where are cornered and yield obedience to the imperi- 
ous circumstances which the system has created. Even General 
Jackson, who attempted to '■'■lasso^'' them with his "Treasury Cir- 
cular," found, after it was too late, that he had put down the 
*' monster" to put up the many : and Mr. Van Buren has realized 
in the pet banks, if not in the monster, the truth of the moral 
of Franklin's fable of the cat and the hawk. The '^'Treasury Cir- 
cular" and the ">S'u& Treasury" were in fact executive ex-^eAxenia to 
regain the control to the General Government of the public Trea- 
sury, which had been usurped by the State Banks through the 
" better currency;" and both General Jackson and Mr. Van Bu- 
ren must now see that the policy which put down the monster 
and put up the many necessarily recognized the usurpation ; and 
with the political power of the General Government over the 
measure of value {ihe pabulum of the imposts and "the sinews of 
war") it turned over the public Treasury to the safe keeping of 
the usurpers. But now it is proposed to return upon the political 
cycle — to resuscitate the "monster" and to put down the many ! a 
pretty method of government ! U. States sovereignty versus State 
sovereignty, and vice versa! Was this the philosophy of the Fed- 
eral Constitution — of Washington, of Franklin, of Madison, of 
Hamilton 1 



FEDERALISM. 33 

nary character of the pretension which don't condescend 
to have its orthodoxy even questioned ; but plumed 
with the self-righteous assumption that the states, (the 
sovereigns of the confederacy) have done "no wrong," 
would "cast the first stone" at the General Government, 
and then plead the antiquity of their usurpation and the 
malign effects of its operation to justify and to continue 
the heresy of state banking ! ! 

It is assumed then as proved, that the people more 
than fifty years since took the entire control of the mea- 
sure of value, equally with the measures of extension, of 
capacity,, and of ponderosity, from the State govern- 
mentSj and placed them under the exclusive control of the 
Congress of the United States; and for the same reasons, 
viz: that they should be national, uniform and identical 
in circulation, value and character every where in the 
confederacy; and to secure this important matter in re- 
lation to the measure of value they not only delegated 
the power to Congress, but they forbid it to the States. 
It is therefore settled by the Constitution affirmatively 
and negatively. 

Having incontestibly settled this part of the question, 
it may be farther asked, has the power to establish or 
introduce a contract or credit currency into our circula- 
tion, so as to create a " mixed circulation" either by 
"Treasury notes," or by "bills of credit," or by post 
notes, or by bank notes, or by due bills, been reserved 
to the people? No! There is no such expressed reserva- 
tion. Has the power been expressly delegated to Con- 
gress ? No! There is no such enumerated power con- 
ferred on that department of the Government. Is it an 
unnecessary and improper power for Congress to exer- 
cise ? If so, then it is among the rights or powers " re- 
tained" by the people in the ninth section of the amend- 
ments of the Federal Constitution, which ordains " that 
the enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights, 
shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retain- 
ed by the people." The question then, which squeezes 
the pith and marrow of this adjudicated and much 
controverted subject is, whether the power is a " neces- 



34 



FEDERALISM. 



sary and proper" power under the seventeenth number 
of the eighth section of the first article, which is evi- 
dently referred to in the tenth article of the amendments 
of the Federal Constitution, as containing a general grant 
of contingent powers limited by the words "necessary 
and proper," as was shown in the 2nd and 3rd numbers 
of these communications. 

In answer therefore to the last interrogatory, it may 
be replied, that if we look to mere authority to settle 
this question of opinion, (for it is assuredly reduced to 
that,) it would seem that the grave discussions in 1791, 
under General Washington's administration ; in 1816, 
under James Madison, and in the case of M'Culloch and 
the State of Maryland, under John Marshall, which set- 
tled this question at those periods in the affirmative, and 
in which these old, experienced, and profound patriots 
all concurred " cum multis aliis,'^ ought to be abun- 
dantly sufficient. And so they are of the principle or 
question oi jurisdiction. But the details in this mat- 
ter; aye! there lies the point. It is exactly here under 
the seventeenth number o'f the eighth section of the first 
article, that the patriot may yet meet the patriot, and 
with unalloyed love of country, and of truth, shiver a 
lance in debate. It is here and exactly here, that we de- 
cide in practice, not in opinion only, the great question 
of constitutionality. That is here, as it always is in 
moral duty, based essentially in genuine utility. As 
this has no other sanction in the ordination of heaven 
than the good of man and the harmony of the creation, 
so that has no other sanction from the people under the. 
seventeenth number of the eighth section of the first ar- 
ticle of the Federal Constitution than " the general good 
and the common welfare." To establish justice, insure 
domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, 
and promote the general welfare, were as before shown, 
the great purposes of its adoption, and which those elec- 
ted to public office swear to carry out to the " best of 
their knowledge and ability." Can the Congress of the 
United States then, under the seventeenth number of 
the eighth section of the first article (for that is their 



FEDERALISM. 35 

only commission of authority upon this subject) estab- 
lish a paper circulation or countenance that in the States 
which is essentially a system of depreciation and appre- 
ciation; which works adulteration in the currency ; in- 
justice to individuals; demoralization to the community, 
and destruction to productive industry ? Can they es- 
tablish a bank of circulation and "accommodation" any 
more than the States, which shall hold the cock that lets 
but and the sponge that absorbs the currency of the na- 
tion ; that shall appreciate or depreciate my debts ; ap- 
preciate or depreciate the wages of my labor; appreciate 
or depreciate the cost of my production ; appreciate or 
depreciate the price of my property? No sir, no! It 
will be a base, cold-blooded abuse of power ; a rank 
usurpation after all that we have seen, heard, felt, and 
now, if not heretofore, know upon this subject. Yes sir, 
" light has come into the world," and it remains to be 
proved whether " we love darkness rather than light/' 
because our deeds are evil.* 

The duty therefore of the General Government and 
of the States upon this subject is now made plain by ex- 
perience, and lies in a narrow compass, and that is, to 
restore the unity of the government of the measure of 
value contemplated by the Federal Constitution, and to 

* After attempting to control the circulating medium of the country 
zxA failing to give to the nation a "better currency" as promised through 
independent State Banks only, the administration, with great apparent 
justice, is charged with an "escape," or dodging constitutional duty in 
falling back upon the Sub Treasury and disclaiming all right of control 
in the premises. But it is equally clear on the other hand that though 
the National Bank asserts the right of control, it does not settle nor 
propose to settle this question of sovereign power which cannot be con- 
current, and therefore must be exclusive or perpetually Utigated. That 
institution is confessedly at best but a combatant for the power ; and to 
be efficient it must concentrate strength enough to break down its op- 
ponents, (the State Banks) if needs be, and retain "the spoils of victo- 
ry" in all time to come ; or become again the proscribed victim of some 
fortunate soldier or "states right" patriot who either in high dudgeon or 
in holy zeal shall hallo " State rights !" " Down with the monster!!" 
Then we shall be "in the midst of another revolution" to fight our late 
and present battles over again ; and then it will be perceived, that the 
projet of a National Bank to settle this question of fundamental law 
was likewise with the Sub Treasury an " escape" from the projet here- 
inafter to be submitted. 



36 ^ TEDERALISM. 

countenance and originate no system of paper that shall 
work depreciation. Such a system of banking or paper 
as shall necessarily guarantee these in its principles of 
action, would be most eminently constitutional, not only 
because it would be the correlative of the mint, and pe- 
culiarly appropriate to the coining power, but indispen- 
sably " necessary and proper" to substitute the present 
with just such a system. It would " form a more per- 
fect union, establish justice, provide for the common de- 
fence, and promote the general welfare — the present sub- 
verts all the great purposes for which the government 
was instituted, and is rapidly reducing the Union to its 
original elements and weakness. It is clear, therefore, 
that the present system ought either to be gradually 
abolished by a fundamental concurrent ordination of the 
states disclaiming all jurisdiction of the currency, and 
restoring its entire control to the General Government, 
(as was indubitably intended in 1789,) or that state bank- 
ing shall be legalized and "regulated" by establishing, 
constitutionally, — 

Firsts That each State shall have the right, when 
petitioned, to judge of the local wants of its citizens, 
and to that end the power to grant a simple act of in- 
corporation to do banking business under the rules and 
regulations to be prescribed exclusively by Congress, 
which shall be uniform throughout the United States, 
and upon the principles alone of sound " commercial 
banking." 

Second, That no corporation, or other bank, com- 
pany, or institution, shall issue a note or any form of 
obligation to pay money or other obligations on time, 
nor under a less denomination than twenty dollars. 

Third, That the circulation of each bank, &c., shall 
never exceed a certain ratio of paper to the actual me- 
tallic basis of each bank, paid in and owned by each 
bank. 

Fourth, That the banks, &c., shall discount no other 
than real " business paper," and no paper having more 
than ninety days to run, and to be bona fide paid in at 
maturity. 



FEDERALISM. ^'^ 

Fifth, That the charter of each bank to be granted 
by the state legislatures, shall be forfeited ipso facto, 
upon the proof of violation of any one of the aforesaid 
regulations, without dispensation or remission, except to 
close business. 

Sixth, The Congress of the United States should have 
the right to establish a commission in each state, with 
full power to examine each bank semi-annually, to the 
extent necessary to the entire fulfilment and execution 
of the above fundamental regulations, and to make re- 
port thereof to the legislature of each state, and to the 
Congress of the United States. 

Seventh, The commission should have a power, by 
summary process, to enforce and make uniform and 
equal these fundamental regulations for the government 
of the currency, with power to enforce the forfeiture of 
each and every charter to that end. 

Eighth, No state shall bank, or be the owner of 
bank stocks, without being subject to all the forfeitures 
and restrictions hereinbefore imposed for the govern- 
ment of the currency, and to be enforced in like manner 
by the bank commissioners. 

Ninth, The states to exercise the right of incorpora- 
tion, but no bank to loan or discount, upon the pain of 
forfeiture, without the certificate of qualification by the 
commissioners. 

Tenth, To secure uniformity and identity of exter- 
nal characters as far as m.ay be in the paper " money^^ 
of the United States, and thereby to cure the infinite 
diversity in these which now characterize it every where, 
and continually expose the people and the banks to 
growing and endless repetitions of fraud and forgery, 
the Congress of the United States should be endowed 
wnth the exclusiv^e power to provide for that uniformity 
whensoever and in the manner they may deem most 
expedient for the interest of the banks and for that of 
the people. 

Eleventh, Congress alone should have the right to au- 
thorize the suspension or resumption of specie payments, 
or to judge of the necessity and propriety of placing and 
4 



38 FEDERALISM. 

continuing the Nation on its credit. Provided hoioever, 
it should be only during war, diudi provided, it should be 
simultaneous and universal ; and provided^ it should be 
extended to all the people as well as all the banks. And 
provided farther, that from and after the passage of the 
General Bank law by Congress twelve months shall be 
given each state bank, or corporation bank, or company 
with banking privileges, to signify to the commissioner or 
commissioners of their respective states their assent or 
refusal to take action under it as hereinbefore provided 
on pain of forfeiture of their respective charters. Pro- 
vided however, that the forfeiture should not be con- 
strued to deprive them of any right or power to liquidate, 
secure and bring to a close their banking business for 
which they should have not less than five years. 

It will be perceived that either Projet provides for 
the UNITY of the government of the " measure of value," 
the first directly by the concurrent retirement of state 
usurpation ; the second by legalizing state banks, and 
establishing in the fundamental law of the whole 
Union the great Principles of their uniform and effi- 
cient regulation. These alternatives are irresistible, or 
the dissolution of this Union. They moreover disclose 
the remote cause of the present anarchy in the currency, 
in the failure of common government, and present the 
true issue in the present struggle, which is power, to be 
re-settled by agreement as it was thought to have been in 
1789. It is lost to the general government and can't be 
re-captured from the states either by the stratagem of 
the *S't«Z>-Treasury or by the powxr of a National Bank. 

But the administration does not propose to re-capture 
the power, but to stand aloof and permit the usurpation 
to cure itself by the " Vis Medecoetrix Naturae''^ of 
the body politic. And the friends of a National Bank 
would adopt the principle of the Homoeopathic Doctors 
" Simelia similibus Curanter ;^^ forgetting that " Si- 
milis Similem paret^'^'^ is older philosophy and more 
true, physically, morally and politically. But it will be 

* Tacitus. 



FEDERALISM. 39 

perceived that the projet would strike at the radix of 
the mischief by bringing the central and common go- 
vernment to bear directly upon each bank to ensure the 
soundness of the metallic basis of each institution in its 
inception and at all times ; to limit and control the ratio 
of their discounts to their oivn capital, and strictly to con- 
fine these to business paper punctually paid in at sixty 
and ninety days, and never to permit the emission of a 
note of less denomination than twenty or fifty dollars. 

In this way we should most unquestionably secure a 
" Preventive remedy''^ of the disorders in our currency. 
The banks, the great laboratories of credit, being them- 
selves at «// tim.es restrained and regulated, will necessa- 
rily restrain and regulate individual credit, and not de- 
stroy it, as they now do by periodical inflation and col- 
lapse. The credit currency of the country (bank notes) 
will then be kept sound and without depreciation by 
keeping bank credits sound and without excess, by 
making them short and definite ; and the maintenance 
of a strict d^ndi punctilious regard of pecuniary obligations 
in all bank transactions will necessarily create and main- 
tain, by a sort of education and example, a high tone stand- 
ard of punctualit}'' in the community at large in all indi- 
vidual transactions — and by the total inhibition of small 
paper and permanently fixing the minimum denomina- 
tion of notes at not less than twenty or fifty dollars, the 
circulation between the " consumers'^ and the small 
dealers will necessarily be metallic; leaving ample facili- 
ties in large paper for the commercial operations and 
larger wants of the community, thereby promoting the 
convenience and soundness of the lesser circulation 
among the consumers, and improving the larger among 
the traders, and retaining in the general circulation as 
well as in the banks a wider metallic basis to sustain the 
paper at all times, whether in peace or in war. 

But further : the projet provides for the predisposi- 
tion to excess, whether that shall arise in the people or 
in the banks — by laying the preventive foundation 
deep in the fundamental law of the land. Nothing 
short of this can succeed. That only can finally settle 



40 FEDERALISM. 

the question of power and bind the states and the people, 
or control in them ^* the tintovvard" disposition to excess. 
For it is unquestionably true, as Tooke and others have 
remarked, that the spirit of speculation and overtrading 
have produced excess of banking. But it is equally 
true that excess of banking has produced and will pro- 
duce the spirit of speculation and overtrading — that they 
are alternately cause and effect, or act and react upon 
each other to overthrow private and public credit, and 
for that reason should be brought under the vigorous 
administration of Government. A sound and strict reg- 
ulation of the banks will be a sound and wholesome ad- 
ministration of credit, private and public. When they 
become wild in their administration, it is then that the 
* mad-water' of currency credit (bank notes,) the issues 
of which they hold, runs all wild, and depreciates the 
measure of value. But " honafide'^ business transactions 
in notes and bills of sixty and ninety days, punctually 
paid at maturity, never can depreciate the cuiTency of a 
country with no other than paper of a large denomination. 
That rule (and there is no other which can,) necessarily 
corrects and prevents excess of individual bank credits, 
and thereby the excess of paper or currency credit, con- 
sequent on them, and through which private overtrading 
and excessive speculation connect themselves with the 
public interest through the measure of value by depre- 
ciating it. These in all hanking countries are correla- 
tives. The excess of the one is the excess of the other. 
Whereas in countries in which no banks exist, and conse- 
quently no credit currency, the excesses of speculation, 
&c., are entirely individual in their responsibilities and 
consequences, and may therfore be left to regulate them- 
selves. But not so in a banking country in which their 
connection with the public interest through the public 
currency is indissoluble. Hence from the great and 
tempting facilities of banks, and the " elasticity of 
paper,^^ as in compliment it has been called, a central 
and strict government of the paper money of this country 
^^to regulate the value thereof," is much more imperious, 
yea, indispensable for the General Government to possess, 
than was deemed necessary for gold and silver. 



/' 



FEDERALISM. 



41 



It is true in a country without banks of circulation 
and accommodation, that when from the operations of 
Foreign trade, there shall be at any time an excessive 
importation of gold over and above the legitimate ivants 
of its circulation, or of goods over and beyond the 
amount of the annual exports of the country to discharge, 
there may be in the one case depreciation of gold and 
silver more or less, and consequently, for the time being, 
a nominal increase of prices from the temporary excess 
of the metals : and from the other appreciation of gold 
and silver and consequent fall of prices from the tempo- 
rary demands for the metals to supply the deficit of the 
exports. But it is clear that if there be no banks bank- 
ing on deposites, that the degree oi depreciation in the 
first case will only be directly as the quantity or amount 
of the excess of gold and silver which had been import- 
ed ; and in the second case, if there be no banks of circu- 
lation, the degree of appreciation in like manner will be 
only directly as the quantity or amount of the metals 
w^anted for exportation. But in countries in which 
banks of circulation and accommodation exist, con- 
tractions and expansions will be in direct proportion to 
the ratio which the paper in circulation bears to the 
metals in the banks upon which discounts were predi- 
cated. If that be 3, 4, 5 or 10 to one, just to that extent 
must the domestic circulation of paper on the sum want- 
ed in gold be contracted, to maintain the ratio required 
by the law of the land, and the law of currency. Hence 
it necessarily follows that the larger the ratio of paper to 
gold permitted by charters of incorporation, the greater 
the excess of contractions, and that banks banking on 
deposites already in excess from excessive importations 
of the metals must vastly increase the mischief The 
projet therefore would for the facilities and advantages 
of " paper'' to the mercantile class compromise or dilute 
the evil, and make the ratio of paper to metallic capital 
small—annul the whole practice of banking on deposites — 
confine their operations to ihexr ow ft capital and to "short 
paper" punctually discharged at maturity in every in- 
stance, and consequently to merchants or persons whose 
returns are or should be quick. 
4* 



42 FEDERALISM. 

The projet therefore would not encourage the short 
sighted policy of making depreciation still more depre- 
ciated, by banking on deposites ov excessive importations 
of gold and silver into the country : nor would it through 
the " elasticity of paper" (accommodation discounts) 
maintain and extend the operation of the very causes 
(overtrading and excessive importations) which should 
at any time create the demand for the exportation of the 
metals to pay the deficit which overtrading and excess 
of importations had created : but by the rule of its ac- 
tion would sink the level of the operations of all the 
banks in such a crisis to the scale or ratio prescribed 
by the General Bank law of Congress, and thereby ac- 
commodate them to the laws of trade, disclaiming the 
empyrical effort to accommodate the unyielding laws of 
commerce to banking by the " elasticity af paper," or 
any other elastic scheme, to maintain or work depre- 
ciation, speculation and overtrading. 

Much greater reliance may in fact be placed on the 
PREVENTIVE powcr of the projet as above shown, than 
on the curative virtues of the " elastic" remedy which 
attempts to substitute excess of paper for specie already 
in excess ; or excess of domestic bank credit in paper 
already depreciated, for excess of foreign cormnercial 
credit already pledged, which knows no bounds till re- 
action comes. The one would maintain and greatly ex- 
tend the evil effects of the over importation of gold and 
silver to circulate in the country ; the other the evil 
CAUSES of the over importation of foreign goods to be 
consumed in the country. The one increases the de- 
preciation in the currency, which would otherwise be 
quickly raised in value to the level of the mundane cir- 
culation by the free exportation of the relative excess of 
the metals which can go abroad to adjust the level ; the 
other •' to stave off contraction," would continue ih^do,- 
preciation by paper which caiiH go abroad either to re- 
store the level or to balance the account raised by the 
very excess which had caused the necessity for the expor- 
tation, and thereby protracts and increases the malady 
for the peculiar benefit of the shavers and brokers, who 



FEDERALISM. 43 

deal in the muddy water of a muddy currency, which 
the laws of trade would otherwise quickly purify, by 
restoring the true level of the measure of value at home 
to the level of the measure of value abroad. 

But the projei involves not a question of pounds, shil- 
lings and pence only, but it presents the alternatives to 
this confederacy of Union or Disunion — order or anar- 
chy; strength or weakness ; of justice, integrity, punctu- 
ality, morality and law, and the periodical overthrow 
and final destruction of all these by the present system, 
if system it should be called. Yes sir ! next to " the 
confusion of tongues" which separated mankind at the 
destruction of the " tower of BabeP' may be ranked the 
efficiency of 900 circulations, under twenty-six Govern- 
ments, independent of each other, to dissolve our union — 
to produce and maintain anarchy by working chaos in 
our monetary circulation. National weakness by des- 
troying through their representative the cohesion and 
unity of our national resources, and universal corruption 
among the people by the irresistible drivings and action 
and reaction, and inflations, and prostrations, which it 
perpetually generates in the current and course of our 
business ; thereby defying all calculation and discretion, 
and putting to wreck or in imminent peril all integrity 
and all honor. 

Assuredly, then, it is the true interest of the state gov- 
ernments and of the state banks and all concerned, to lay 
aside all party and ambitious feelings, and to bring to the 
consideration of this subject the enlightened views antj 
heaven-born dispositions of 1789. Yes sir, the same 
deep and abiding motives, should ?ioi^ actuate all, as did 
our forefathers when they reformed the old articles of 
the confederation into our present inimitable system of 
government, the great principle of which in relation to 
the measure of value has been unwittingly deported in 
an evil hour, and the conseqitences of which we now feel; 
at once demonstrating its superlative wisdom, and our 
highest duty and interest— TO RESTORE IT. 

In conclusion, the writer would beg leave to add (as 
he hopes must already appear,) that he is no enemj^ of 



44 FEDERALISM. 

credit. Far, very far from it. On the contrary, he re- 
gards it as the great badge of modern civilization ; an 
irresistible leverage in its moral power. Like honor, 
chastity, liberty, and religion, it marks the very highest 
grade of civilization. But like these it should be guard- 
ed as the " vestal fire." Like these he would protect it 
against the seduction of scoundrels, the subtle conspiracies 
of fraud, and the dangerous intoxicating excitement and 
corrupting influence of great and long continued com- 
mercial prosperity. 

Those who advocate the present system, of deprecia- 
tion, are the real enemies of credit, because they would, 
by the workings of their system as above demonstrated, 
retrograde society towards barbarity, and just in that pro- 
portion destroy credit by uprooting its true foundations ; 
by corrupting the public morals ; annihilating public and 
private confidence ; and by exposing society, through 
its ABUSES, to the ravages of the cold, calculating and 
unrelenting harpies and vampires which it has generated, 
and who are now feeding upon the very vitals and suck- 
ing the blood of the body politic* 

But, sir, there is another malign influence that has 
crept into our councils and politics, and finally threatens 
to invade our " kneading troughs" and fire-sides. It is 
the disturbing subject of Abolition — that fanatical im- 
pulse that seeks to become the modern crusade — not to 
the holy land to wrest the sepulchre from the sacrilegious 
hands of the infidels — not to restore the denationalized 
Jew to Palestine, the donation of his God — not to restore 
the Ethiopian, " the child of the sun," to the land of his 
forefathers, ta set up self government for himself. No ! 
that would be noble and sublime. But it is simply to 



* In illustration of the superlatively malignant influence of our present 
system of paper and credit, the author has often compared itsindlscrimi' 
naie ravages to that of the well known " milk sickness" of the west; the 
subtle poison of which is said to be so intense and all-pervading that it 
penetrates the flesh of its victims so as to poison all the dogs and buzzards 
which feed on it, as that of our currency has many of the brokers and 
shavers who would fatten on its disorders and on the merchandize of 
money. 



FEDERALISM. 45 

turn the poor ignorant negro loose — yes, simply loose, 
amidst all the vices and diseases and temptations, and 
shrewdness and tact of superior civilization (or cunning 
among the whites if you please,) without any of its 
moral and intellectual guarantees to protect him — to en- 
dow him with the privilege of self-government without 
the indispensable preparation to exercise it with benefit 
to himself or discretion towards others — to make him a 
freeman among us, and not a citizen — and if a citizen, 
not a companion — to deprive him of all the conservative 
influences of property and the identifications of interest 
with the community in which he lives, and which it pro- 
cures for him, for the vagrant liberty of a disfranchised, 
dishonored ''free negro.''^ 

But the abolitionist, in the pursuit of an abstraction, 
the " air line" of theorists, is regardless of consequences — 
he accommodates not his conduct to circumstances — he 
can't stoop or stop to look down the chain of cause and 
effect to considerations of real utility to the black man 
himself. He opposes the enlarged and enlightened 
philanthropy which would send the elite of the free 
negroes of America to Africa, to form their own society 
and government — to diffuse civilization there and to arrest 
the slave trade. To accomplish the simple purpose of 
emancipation, he would turn the negroes loose, paupers 
in Maryland and Virginia, or favor their escape to the 
howling, icy blasts of Canada and the Polar regions. 
To carry out his favorite dogma, which he don't under- 
stand, of doing unto others as ye would that they shall 
do unto him, he puts forth a determined, if not deadly 
opposition, to the great reforming agencies of modern 
civilization (agriculture and commerce,) which, having 
reclaimed the negro from barbarity and idolatry and in- 
ducted him into many of the elements of the arts and 
sciences of the Nineteenth Century, is now peaceably 
and slowly, and, for that very reason, safely and bene- 
ficially to all concerned, bearing him towards that climate 
on this continent, most congenial to his physical con- 
stitution, in which the sugar cane, the banana, the rice, 
the plantain and the black-man flourish, and the white- 



% 



46 FEDERALISM. 

man pines, enervates and dies. Are the results dubious ? 
Is not nature always wise and always benificent in her 
great workings and ultimate designs ? Shall we " with 
microscopic eye/^ presume to scan and to thwart those 
designs ? Shall we find fault " with partial evil'^ which 
may be " universal good ?" Shall we threaten to dis- 
solve this union, and propose to violate the fundamental 
law of the land, to carry out our visionary schemes of 
" human perfectability'^ which for aught our poor, con- 
tracted understandings can comprehend, may be in 
opposition to the high behest of Heaven, or to the natu- 
ral and, for that very reason, salutary operation of cause 
and effect. No ! But the Abolitionist does propose to 
do all this in violation of the Federal Constitution, which 
I propose to prove in our next and last number, if it is 
not incompatible with the political tactics of the day to 
discuss this subject at this time. 



NO. V. 

Mr. John C. Wright — Sir :■ — In the conclusion of 
our last number we touched the subject of Abolition so 
far as to show, in part, that it is a revolutionist and not a 
reformist — that it is a theoretical fanatic, if not a wicked 
knave — that it is halloing liberty ! the rights of man ! 
slaveocracy ! and emancipation under impulse, and un- 
der the sanction of the Jesuitical doctrine that " the end 
justifies the means.'' It was hinted that its zeal cannot 
be holy, because ^'it is without knowledge" — that it can*- 
not be discreet, because it does not unite " the wisdom 
of the serpent with the innocence of the dove,'' but in 
pursuit of the " air line" of an abstraction, it would do 
the negro much mischief; and to build up the babel of 
party to produce " a confusion of tongues" in the con- 
federacy, it would thwart the efforts of the enlightened 
patriotic philanthropist, who would christianize and civi- 
lize the savage negro in Africa, through the all-powerful 
influence of the " e/zYe" of the negroes of America. 
And lastly, it was succinctly stated, that it would coun- 



FEDERALISM. 47 

teract, if it were possible, the determinations of agricul- 
ture, of commerce, of climate, and the constantly increas- 
ing pressure of the free white labor in the north, which 
is slowly, and for that very reason, quietly and beneficial- 
ly for all concerned, drawing off and pressing forward 
the slave labor of the more northern of the slave states 
towards the same parallels of latitude on this continent, 
with those of the black-man on the continent of Africa ; 
to be ultimately freed in the climate ordained for him 
by heaven, from time immemorial,* in which the white- 
man deteriorates and dies, and the negro flourishes. 
And to accomplish all this, the abolitionist would sud- 
denly revolutionize the habits, views and feelings of the 
people — unsettle the rights of property — " kick the 



* The identity of the human species has never been proved ex- 
cept by hypothesis. The negative is estabhshed by the senses 
and by history, and the " onus" of the affirmative lies upon those 
who beheve it, to prove by facts that the " leopard can change his 
spots, or the Ethiopian his skin," by paint, climate, or any thing 
else short of disease. He may change his climate as the leopard 
and lion and live ; but it is well known to those thoroughly ac- 
quainted with the habits of all the three animals, that they are 
physically capacitated to flourish in the greatest perfection in the 
low hot latitudes. There the beaux ideal of a negro, leopard, and 
lion, has been always found. Hence the exodus of the former to- 
wards the climate on this continent, most congenial to his nature, 
should be favored and not thwarted. That would be enlightened 
philanthropy — it would be working with nature, agriculture, com- 
merce and climate, and not against them all. They would mature 
their work of ultimate emancipation slowly, and for the benefit of 
the negro. The abolitionist would effect it quickly, to gratify his 
own self righteousness and ambitious aspirations. The one is 
multiplying and will finally free and ennoble the negro in the cli- 
mate to which he belongs. The other would throw him loose, 
check his population, then reduce it, and finally destroy the black- 
man, as the red-man has been destroyed, and for the same reason, 
which the writer would leave to the sagacity of the abolitionist to 
find out. But it is a most remarkable fact illustrative of the 
irresitible workings of nature, that even the abolitionist in making 
the property in slaves insecure in the more northern slave states, is 
blindly co-operating with the great agencies above enumerated, in 
pressing forward the negro to the garden of his Eden, on this con- 
tinent. It is evident that the determination of slavery in the 
United States is from the North-east to the South-west. 



48 



FEDERALISM. 



political balance" of this Union — violate the compromise 
of the constitution, and strike from the parchment some 
of its incontestible principles. This last it is now our 
intention to prove. 

And first of all, it may be remarked, that it is history 
that at the time of the adoption of the Federal Constitu- 
tion, most if not all of the thirteen States held negroes 
as slave property — that at the time of its adoption they 
were then being imported from Africa. But being re- 
garded as men, though held as property, that importa- 
tion was discountenanced. Hence the provision of the 
first number of the ninth section of the first article, 
"that the migration or importation of such persons as any 
of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, 
shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year 
1808, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such impor- 
tation, not exceeding ^10 for each person." Now it is 
clear that this prohibition relates entirely to the foreign 
commerce in slaves, and contains two restrictions upon 
the general commercial power which had been delegated 
exclusively to Congress in the third number of the eighth 
section, or rather is meant to restrict the general grant, 
contained in the seventeenth number of the same section, 
of all powers necessary and proper to carry the third 
number into full execution. Nor can the word migra- 
tion, which opens the section, mistify the conclusion; 
for the alternative "or" and the adjective "such," before 
the word " importation" in the conclusion of the first 
number of the ninth section, incontestibly show that mi- 
gration and importation are used synonimously in the 
section. Nor can the power delegated in the third ar- 
ticle to regulate commerce "amongst the states," be con- 
strued to embarrass, cripple or destroy the commerce in 
slave property any more than in any other property. 

But this important matter is not left to construction 
alone. Negroes are property. Held so at the time of 
the adoption of the instrument, and recognized as such 
in the right of the owner to reclaimation, under the third 
number of the second section of the fourth article. The 
law therefore that would tax this property exclusively, 



FEDERALISM. 49 

in the course of transportation, would be penal and odi- 
ous, and the discrimination manifestly unjust, and there- 
fore unconstitutional ; for the fifth number of the ninth 
section of the first article ordains that " no tax or duty 
shall be laid on articles exported from any state, nor pre- 
ference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or 
revenue to the ports of one State over those of another." 
And the first number of the second section of the fourth 
article recognizes the great fundamental principle that 
makes us all equally alike citizens of the United States, 
by equalizing its protection in ordaining " thot the citi- 
zens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and 
immunities of citizens in the several States." 

It is clear, then, that Congress have no other power 
over this subject in the Union at large, than that which 
they have already exercised. But I am to be told that 
they have all sorts of power, in the District of Columbia; 
that they are a complete legislature with plenary pow- 
ers, and that they can abolish slavery there. And so 
they can if their legislative power is unlimited. But 
will it be pretended by the most confident in this opin- 
ion, that they are without the limitations and prohibi- 
tions, and reservations of the Federal Constitution, in 
the ten miles square? That would be absurd. But it is 
pertinaciously contended that the words of the bond are, 
that Congress shall have " exclusive legislation in all 
cases whatsoever over such District." Surely it must 
be exclusive of every other, for that was intended; but 
vsurely it was equally intended that their legislation 
should be within the limitations, prohibitions and reser- 
vations of their power of attorney of Government — the 
Federal Constitution. This is incontestible. But the 
general grant of the power of exclusive legislation in all 
cases whatsoever, over such District, is not only limited 
by the enumeration of powers, and reservation of pow- 
ers which Congress cannot, under any circumstances, 
transcend or violate, either in the District or any where 
else, but the special power, if you please, given to Con- 
gress of "exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever," 
for the District of Columbia, delegated by the sixteenth 
5 



50 FEDERALISM. 

number of the eighth section of the first article of the 
Federal Constitution, is necessarily subjected to the lim- 
itations and restrictions of the very next article, the sev- 
enteenth, to the right to pass all laws " necessary and 
proper" to carry into effect the foregoing and all other 
powers, vested by the Constitution in the Government 
of the United States, or in any department or office 
thereof. 

Assuming then that the Congress of the United States 
are not bound under the fifth article of the amendments 
of the Federal Constitution to respect the rights of pro- 
perty, which ordains " that no person shall be deprived 
of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law:'' 
nor shall private property be taken for public use with- 
out just compensation, yet the ^^ 07ius proba7idr' Vies 
upon the abolitionists to prove that the law abolishing 
slavery in the District of Columbia is " necessary'''' to 
the safety and comfort of the Executive; is ^^necessary''^ 
to the prompt and wise discharge of the legislative func- 
tions by Congress; is '^necessary" to the safety of the pub- 
lic property in the District of Columbia, or is " necessa- 
ry^' io stcuve, thetranquillityof the citizens of the District 
or of the adjacent states of Maryland and Virginia, or 
to subserve their sense of moral and political propriety. 
Otherwise it is self-evident they can't begin to make out 
a case of necessity, and much less of propriety, for the 
legislative interposition of Congress, and especially so 
long as the people of the District and the people of Mary- 
land and the people of Virginia are opposed to it. No! 
It is incontestible thatCongress have no power to pass any 
other laws than such as shall be "necessary and proper." 
In the practical administration of the Government, it is 
true they are made, as they necessarily must be, the 
judges of that necessity and propriety, but they are 
judges on oath, and responsible to the people for the 
faithful discharge of that contingent and ultimate legis- 
lative authority which, like the judicial, must be lodged 
somewhere, and like all other discretionary power, is in 
^^ abeyance" of the wants and circumstances which make 
it "necessary and proper," or justify its exercise as was 



FEDERALISM. 51 

precisely illustrated in the purchase of Louisiana in 
1803. 

That the necessity and the propriety of that ^reat 
measure of Mr. Jefferson's administration was foreseen 
or even felt (if it existed at all) in 1789, when the Fed- 
eral Constitution was adopted, no one will assert. That 
its necessity and propriety came to exist at the time the 
purchase was made, all but the blind and the infatuated 
must now see and understand. Nor at the time it was 
made was it thought " indispensable" or absolutely "ne- 
cessary" to purchase the country extending from the 
"Balize to the mouth of Columbia river, or from the 
42d to the 49th degree of north latitude on the Pacific 
Ocean." But that statesman, who certainly did not split 
hairs in every thing, knew that the phrase " indispensa- 
bly necessary," now sought to be introduced by some 
of his pretended followers, is unknown to the Federal 
Constitution; and that the phrase " absolutely necessa- 
ry" is used only once in the second number of the tenth 
section of the first article, and that in restriction of state 
power. He further knew that the Island of Orleans alone 
was worth more than ^15,000,000 to this nation, not in 
pounds, shillings, and pence only, but morally and poli- 
tically. But he was told by that master spirit of his age, 
Napoleon Buonaparte, that he must purchase all Louis- 
iana or none. Mr. Jefferson forthwith forgot the soph- 
isms of the restrictionist who would tie the general gov- 
ernment down to special enumerated powers alone, till 
he should get into office, and the hair splitting distinc- 
tions of the metaphysical demagogue in Congress, who 
would consume a whole day of the nation's time in gra- 
duating the scale of political necessities, to demonstrate 
to his district in Virginia that he belongs to the school 
of '98, and with the moral courage that becomes a pa- 
triot and statesman, he seized the crisis, and expelled 
from his cabinet the hide-bound doctrines of party, to 
bless his country and to immortalize his name. 

To apply this illustration, then, to the subject of abo- 
lition, who will say that the lime may not arrive when 
we shall see allMaryland, Virginia, and the District, pe- 



52 FEDERALISM. 

titioning Congress to abolish slavery in the ten miles 
square ? " In the fullness of time" this may happen, and 
under the beneficent influence of the great moral and 
reforming agencies above adverted to, (agriculture and 
commerce,) which operate not by the torch or the fag- 
got, or the asperities of political party, which are always 
in a Awrry, but throwing their benign influences through 
time, which ripens, and mellows, and prepares all, they 
accommodate all. The seventeenth number of the eighth 
section of the first article, therefore, which now very 
correctly limits the power of Congress, under existing 
circumstances^ upon this subject, may then become, 
with the concurrence of all, the commission of its autho- 
rity to do the very act which it does not now sanction, 
because its necessity and propriety, for any one of the 
purposes above enumerated, cannot now be shown to 
exist. 

In conclusion, therefore, the writer w^ould beg leave 
to remark, that although the denunciation of federalism, 
and the political proscriptions and distractions of the last 
forty years in this Union, have mainly sprung from the 
seventeenth number of the eighth section of the first ar- 
ticle of the Federal Constitution, yet he nevertheless re- 
gards it as the most valuable article of the whole instru- 
ment, because it gives the true value to every other if 
wisely and independently and patriotically fulfilled. As 
observed in the first numbers, it makes the government 
practical — it makes the federal government a govern- 
ment of choice — of discretion ; ay, an intellectual 
government. It throws the field of debate, of discus- 
sion, wide open, and invites the patriotic orator of the 
Union to meet his brother and nobly break a lance in 
the exposition and vindication of the true policy of his 
country. But it was never expected to be the '^ punc- 
tum saliens morhoruni^^ of the body politic. It was 
never expected to become the diverging point at which 
was to commence the dissolution of this Union. It was 
never expected that its highest compliment and commis- 
sion of free agency would bring it under the degrading 
despotism of party, to rob it of all utility. Nor was it 



FEDERALISM. 53 

foreseen that it would become the fertile source of poli- 
tical proscription, for " opinion's sake,''' and much less 
that these would be ripened m\.o popular and state de- 
nunciation of the man who should dare to advocate the 
legitimate rights of the Federal power, except under the 
device of some humbug name to substitute "Federalist," 
a cognomen once courted by Madison, Hamilton and 
Jay, and approved by all. No! But it has been, it is, 
and it will be the fact, till our political forces will all be- 
come '^ centrifugal — Congress, a dissipated cabal, 
speaking against time and for money, and the President 
a time serving demagogue to dispense " the loaves and 
fishes" of executive patronage to his " State rights" 
friends, who will put him into office and keep him there 
because of his thorouo;h going" States right principles." 
Then your General Government will become an expen- 
sive, useless, empty pageant, and your Union will have 
(if it exist at all) " a name to live when it is dead."* 

But sir, you will not infer from these last observations, 
nor from any others contained in the above numbers, 
that the writer is an enemy of "State rights.'^ Far, very 
far from it. On the contrary he wishes it to be most 
distinctly understood that he cherishes neither personal 
nor partizan feelings; that in politics he has no private 
griefs to soothe or political hatreds to gratify. Nor has 
he 2iX\y political aspirations; otherwise he too might go 
in for "state rights" — he too might be disposed to 
" swim with the tide and trample on the fallen." But 

* The States through the usurped right to erect private and 
state credit into public currency, have seized the control of the 
money making power, and have discredited themselves. Through 
excess of jealousy of the central power, and the dominant influ- 
ence of the States in Congress, they have constantly hallooed con- 
solidation ! and for an economicnl administration of the General 
Government, and as constantly neglected the army and the navy, 
and the proper defences of the country. Hence it will follow as 
consequences that they will ultimately seize the public domain and 
the public revenues to prop their dishonored credit, and to prose- 
cute State enterprises; and the war making power to protect their 
defenceless firesides. So true was the sage remark " that revolu- 
tions never go back." 

5* 



54 federalism:. 

being disposed to "view with equal eye a hero perish or 
a sparrow fall," he would *^give unto Caesar that which 
is Caesar's, and unto God that which is his." Yes sirt 
He don't claim for the General Government illimitable 
means to accomplish enum,erattd ends. That would 
be both Jesuitical and absurd. But the end being given 
— specified — the means to accomplish it must be " ne- 
cessary and proper," in which is included, as essential 
to its constitutionality, beneficence and utility in its in- 
fluences — conformity to the letter of the constitution, and 
fitness as means to accomplish the legitimate purpose. 
If therefore the end is not given, or the particular mean 
h forbidden, it is usurpation to assume them ; but if 
the mean employed to accomplish a legitimate end is 
unnecessary, inexpedient, improper, unfit, unjust, im- 
moral, it is an abuse of the discretionary power given 
to Congress "to pass all laws necessary and proper;" in- 
asmuch as that is the condition of this general grant of 
contingent powers. 

That Congress is in the^r<s/ instance necessarily made 
the judge of this conformity of their measures to the 
requisitions of the seventeenth number of the eighth sec- 
tion of the first article of the Constitution, there can be 
no doubt. But this was, and still is, and always must 
be, unavoidable, if the government shall he practical. 
But it results from the organization of the government 
and from the representative principle particularly, that 
the ultimate appeal in all these questions is to the peo- 
ple who are assum^ed to be capable of appreciating both 
theoretical error and practical abuse, and to whom the 
Federal Constitution especially leaves this last very im- 
portant matter which appertains to the practice and the 
policy of the government. Questions therefore in rela- 
tion to these are always open to enquiry and discussion, 
and hence it is always "in order" to make the issue of 
necessity d.nd propriety with any measure of Congress, 
till practical demonstration and the human understand- 
ing have finally settled the questions of fitness and 
genuine utility. 

But the States right party, of which I claim to be one, 



FEDERALISM. 55 

(for "we are all federalists and all republicans") whilst 
they question this doctrine " of necessary and proper 
powers," which are of necessity discretionary and 
contingents are compelled to concede the doctrine of 
" incidental and implied powers," as if they were not 
likewise matters of opinion and of sound discretion — as 
lit hey were not equally open to discussion and inquiry — 
as if a measure or means could, in the proper acceptation 
of the terms, be necessary and proper, and not be inci- 
dental and implied. But the words *' necessary and pro- 
per" require more. It is not enough that a measure be 
incidental and implied, viz: " necessary" as a mean to a 
particular end, bpt it must be " proper" — it must be be- 
neficent — it must be politic — it must be discreet. In fine, 
genuine utility, as above observed, must mark it, and 
practice can alone demonstrate its true character on many 
occasions in public as is often the case in private life. 
The construction contended for, therefore, would in 
practice be more restrictive and salutary than the im- 
practicable abstractions of the "restrictionists," and more 
satisfactory, because more conclusive in resolving the 
whole policy of the government in \is practical admin- 
istration, where it cannot be " weighed in a balance or 
measured by a two foot rule," into the only infallible 
test of constitutionality in these cases, viz: its beneji- 
cencCy and this into its conformity to the philosophy 
which dictated the moral aphorism that '^ honesty is the 
best policy," and which prompted the Apostle to ex- 
claim, " God forbid that we should do evil that good 
may come of it." No I The doctrine contended for 
would sanction no measures however specious and al- 
luring as means to ends which in practice should ivork 
fraud, or usurpation, or oppression, or gambling specu- 
lation, or extravagance, or inflated temponny prosperity, 
or even the "greatest good to the greatest number," by 
sacrificing the rights of one part of a community for 
the exclusive benefit of another, or of a feeble dependent 
minority to the rapacious Moloch of triumphant party. 
If, for example, Congress would touch the Taritf, 
it should not be for an eleemosynary purpose; it 



56 FEDERALISM. 

should not be to dispense political or pecuniary bene- 
fits; it should not be to favor the rich, or the poor, the 
North or the South, the East or the West, the majority 
or the minority, at the expense of either, but for neces- 
sary revenue, and to make it ^^imiform;^^ combining 
as near as may be justice always and to all classes, 
with policy in its adjustment. 

If Congress would legislate for the District of Colum- 
bia '<in all cases whatsoever," they should remember 
that their commission of authority is in all cases to pass 
such laws only as shall be " necessary and proper,'^ as 
above interpreted. 

If Congress would erect public or private credit into 
public currency, they should first of all enquire wheth- 
er the latter can be done, seeing that it is history that 
they^rmerwas denied by the convention that framed 
the Federal Constitution. If, however, it should be 
deemed " necessary and proper," under existing cir- 
cumstances, to touch it in order to discharge the duty of 
regulating and maintaining sound and uniform " the 
measure of value," or of regaining from the States its 
legitimate control, they should remember that " paper 
money," though it be like religion, the great leverage 
and badge of modern civilization, is likewise, in its 
ABUSES, the great modern fraud and handy instru- 
ment of legerdemain in these " latter days," — that 
CREDIT, like religion, is powerful for evil as well as for 
good, and that a credit establishment may, in the 
end, be as injurious to true credit, and the real inte- 
rests of commerce and agriculture, as a " church estabr 
lishment" is now known to be to true piety and the 
extension of genuine Christianity. If, therefore, we 
must have paper money, the projet would recognize 
no other but sound commercial banking; it would 
create no monopoly; it would make no odious discrim- 
inations to excite the jealousy and the rivalship of 
states, and mercantile cupidity of competiting cities, 
but it would " regulate" and govern all alike, and by 
ONE law, embodying tkerein the well established 
principles of sound bankings 



FEDERALISM. 57 

In conclusion, then, the following summing up would 
appear to be justified from the premises. ^ 

First. That a government of abstractions only, if it 
were possible in this country and age of invincible en- 
terprise and eternal change, would be an absurdity. 
Under such a government, faithfully administered, 
there would, of course, be neither usurpation nor 
abuse; but there would nevertheless and most assured- 
ly be a great deal of very foohsh, bad government, 
and no responsibility. Yet such is the theory of the 
doctrine of the "restrictionists," if in reahty there be 
any such, except in profession. 

Second. The great philosophical abstraction of the 
Federal Constitution would confine, and does confine, 
the General Government to the exclusive administra- 
tion (with some few enumerated exceptions) of certain 
great community or general interests of the confede- 
racy. These constitute the "cardinal points" in our 
political system, and indicate most beautifully the 
sphere of its action. These are "enumerated"— these 
were laid down on the political chart, but in steering 
the ship of State, it was foreseen that although arbi- 
trary political principles should govern its construction, 
and certain political points should be distinctly desig- 
nated as objects to be invariably and alone steered 
for, which, like the physical, must be fixed; yet that 
it would be indispensably necessary to the success of 
the voyage, that the experienced, trust- worthy pilots 
should be so far " latitudinarian'' in the discharge ol 
the important duties confided to them, as to exercise 
their best judgment, intelligence and skill in working 
it to its "ends." Hence, 

Third, The great moral of the Federal Constitu- 
tion was instituted, by which free agency, discretion, 
and responsibility, were enlisted to preside over the 
practical administration of the government which was 
then being erected to liberty and the rights of man. 
This is found in the seventeenth number of the eighth 
section of the first article of the Constitution, which 
rule, like Holy writ, is not so much inhibitory of the 



58 FEDERALISM. 

commission of each individual political sin or abuse of 
free agency^ as a system or spirit of rules with 
which all political abuse is incompatible. 

Fourth. It therefore clearly results, as was before 
stated, that the Federal Government is, in part, a gov- 
ernment of fundamental written rules, and in part a 
government of policy, or discretion, or choice ; and 
that within these written rules, and the moral or spirit 
of its commission, the Federal Government is as it is 
declared to be, supreme, and consequently exclusive. 

Fifth. But it equally results that beyond these, it 
is powerless, and that the residuary mass of sovereign 
power " is reserved to the States or to the people." 

Sixth. If the above positions be sound, it clearly 
results, farther, that though there may be concurrent 
jurisdiction where it is so declared; yet there never 
can be constitutional conflicts of jurisdiction between 
the General Government and the States, seeing the 
one is declared to be supreme and exclusive in the 
sphere of its action, " the laws and constitution of any 
state to the contrary notwithstanding." Where they 
are concurrent^ they move in parallel lines, which 
never can cross so long as they are stt aight. When 
they conliict they are no longer concurrent, and for 
that reason the state jurisdiction is necessarily void if 
the General Government is in line. Hence, 

Seventh. It finally results that as the States, in the 
delegation of the war making power, " reserved" or 
" retained" no other constitutional rights of war, but 
the rights "to suppress insurrection" and " to repel in-- 
vasion;" and in the commercial power no other rights 
but the power to pass inspection laws and to establish 
inspections; and in the money power and the power 
over weights and measures, no other rights, but the 
power to make gold and silver coin only a tender in 
the payment of debts, all the rest being absolutely del- 
egated 10 Congress, " they belong of right to the Gene- 
ral Government." Independent state and corpora- 
tion banking, being in conflict, as was above demon- 
strated, both in theory and practice, with this exclu- 



FEDERALISM. 59 

sive money and commercial power, are therefore un- 
constitutional. Hence it was concluded — 

Eighth. That although credit has existed, will ex- 
ist, and should be cherished in every community of 
laws and among all honorable men in their private 
RELATIONS as citizcus or subjects, in which it should 
be left perfectly free to govern or regulate itself, re- 
serving to the States of this Confederacy the right to 
define and enforce the obligation of contracts* which 
they are forbidden by the Federal Constitution to " im- 
pair;'^ yet the moment they would change this rela- 
tion from private to public — the moment they would 
change it from individuals to the State — the moment 
they would convert this moral capital (individual 
credit) into public currency, from tliat moment it 
ceases to be subject, or citizen, and would become 
sovereign; from that moment it eschews government, 
and aspires to govern, because, having entangled 
itself with the public business and interest, and iden- 
tijied itself with the political institutions of the coun- 

* It is self-evident in every contract on time, or on demand, for 
a particular amount of a specified thing, that the elements of the 
obhgation consist of three specifications, viz. First, the lime in 
which it is to be fulfilled : second, the measure or amount stipula- 
ted for: and third, the quality or swA/ec^ matter contracted for. Can 
any one of these elements be suspended, or changed, or modified, 
by the legislative " device'' of " changing the remedy," without 
impairing the obligation of the contract which is compounded of 
all three] Can ''the right to change the remedy" be made to ope- 
rate retrospectively? Can the legislature create a le^al inability on 
the part of a creditor to collect his debt by law at the particular time 
stipulated for, or in one or five years thereafter, without depriving 
him of the rights and facilities which the law of the land vested in 
him at the time the contract was made? The question, then, whe- 
ther the legislature can pass a " retrospective law," depriving me 
of the legal rights and facilities 1 enjoyed or held '''-pari passu,^' 
with the contract, and in faith of which it was made, is equiva- 
lent to the enquiry, whether it is constitutional or competent to 
them to pass an unjust law? yet " replevin laws," and '* stop 
laws," and "suspension bank laws," are rife in the land, and the 
direct descendants of the sire usurpation commented on in the 
text, and amply illustrative of the truth of the latin sentiment for- 
merly quoted, ^^Similis, Similem Paret^ 



60 



FEDERALISM. 



try, {money) it assumes the sovereignty, and from 
being a fraudulent counterfeit of the legitimate instru- 
ment of commerce and just measure of value through 
legislative usurpation, and the alloy of depreciation, 
it becomes either an involuntary or an impudent rebel 
against the jurisdiction of the established Government 
and the law of the land. Hence it was contended that 
if we 'iuust have banks, they should be legitimated — 
the present anarchial system should be reformed, and 
the PRINCIPLES of its future government well defined 
and deeply laid in i\\Q fundamental code.* 

* If by " Free Banking''' be meant banking without special 
regulation by law, then would every man make paper money from 
the boot-black to the millionaire^ and destroy the fixed consiilu- 
iional mediSaie of value by the indefinite and fluctuating measure 
of" shin plasters." But if it mean banking under the regulation 
of municipal law in lieu of Acts of Incorporation, then surely it 
is not free banking; and if the premises be true, Congress alone 
have the exclusive sovereign right (as the projet above submitted 
provides) to pass that law, to protect and to prevent the constitu- 
tional money from being superseded and converted into merchan- 
dize by municipal (alias) paper money, whether issued by cor- 
porations or by individuals. In fact, it should be entitled '■^A law 
to protect and control the National Treasury through the National 
measure of value ^''^ in which duties, imposts, and direct taxes must 
be paid and are imperatively required by the Federal Constitution 
to be " uniform.''^ Municipal banking, therefore, by individuals 
under the States^ is as unconstitutional and absurd as corporation 
banking was herein before proved to be, under State authority. 
Changing the mode changes not the essence of the usurpation, 
though it may weaken its influence \iy individualizing it, or break- 
ing its cohesion^ and so far may favor its final reform. But to 
reinstate order, harmony, and uniformity, the -'sceptre" must be 
restored to Judah — the unity of Government to the measure of value. 



FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 



Proposed Jimendments. 

First, It is proposed for consideration, first, that the 
President and Vice President of the United States 
shall be elected for five years only, and declared ineli- 
gible afterwards. 

Second, That the election shall be made definitively 
by a college of Electors, which shall be in number 
equal to what each state shall be entitled to have at 
any time thereafter, under the present system of appor- 
tionment. 

Third, That each state shall be divided by Congress 
after each census into just so many electoral districts 
as each may be entitled to have of numbers in the 
Electoral college. 

Fourth, That Congress shall designate and perma- 
nently fix by law some one day when the whole 
people of the United States entitled to vote shall con- 
vene at their respective election precincts and choose 
one Elector for each District, who should be required 
to be an inhabitant of said District, and a native born 
citizen of the United States. 

Fifth, Each member thus elected with due authen- 
tication of his election, according to the law of each 
state, which should be declared to be final and conclu- 
sive, should be required to meet at the seat of the 
General Government on a given day, and at least thirty 
days before the convention of the ensuing session of 
Congress next preceding the expiration of the Presi- 
dential term for the time being, and when convened 
and organized as an electoral college, shall vote by 
ballot for President and Vice President of the United 
States until they shall have definitively made and 
certified the election to Congress. 

Sixth, The members of said college should be de- 
6 



62 FEDERALISM. 

clared to be ineligible to any office within the nomina- 
tion or gift of the President elected by them for the 
time being. 

1st. It is obvious that the above scheme would 
give independence and dignity to the Presidential 
office, and character, by the mode of election. 

2d. It would place all his patriotism and aspira- 
tions for high-souled distinction in full requisition, and 
invite him by the very strongest considerations to be 
the President of his country and not of a party. 

3rd. It would moreover provide the most certain, 
prompt, simple, definitive and enUghtened method to 
conduct and close the election by the people them- 
selves, through the medium of a select body of their 
most experienced and best citizens, chosen in each 
district from among themselves and by themselves, to 
execute the special trust, and that only, and to return 
to themselves without hope of reward except the ap- 
proval of their constituents and that of their own con- 
sciences. 

4th. It would remove all "heart burnings'' and 
corroding sense of personal neglect and injustice, by 
providing an equal and fair chance for every highly 
estimable patriot of this already extensive and grow- 
ing confederacy, to be put in nomination before the 
college for the highest offices in the gift of the people. 

5th. By dividing each state and consequently the 
action of the people into Electoral Districts of small 
dimensions, the election of President will be made 
quiet and entirely safe, by discharging popular excite- 
ment by platoons, as in the elections for members of 
Congress at this moment, in which " all nature's differ- 
ence keeps all nature's peace." Whereas under the 
present system of two organic conventions to super- 
sede* the contingency contemplated and (provided for 

* It is obvious that the two convention scheme to elect the 
President and Vice President of the United States operates the 
exclusion of all other candidates except four ; virtually disfranchises 
the people to that extent, and takes the contingent election from 
Congress and transfers it to PARTY. The people are in fact by 



FEDERALISM. 



63 



by the Federal Constitution in the election of Presi- 
dent and Vice President of the United States, party 
will be periodically hurled against party— States 
against States— the North against the South— aboli- 
tionists against SLAVE-ocRATS—TTza^^e^o/mena^am^^ 
masses of men — Geographical and Political, organ- 
ized into TWO great Parties, burning with all the fire 
of rivalship and ambition — chafed by the deep con- 
viction of mutual injury, proscription and injustice, 
and lashed into madness by the ferocious eloquence of 
designing demagogues and the fanatical ravings of 
misguided zealots. And then the question will not be 
whether the " q%% should be broken at the larger or 
smaller end,^^ nor whether a " Hickory broom" or a 
" Cider barrel" shall constitute the highest claim to 
popular confidence and favor ; but whether the North 
or the South, or the rich or the poor, shall hold the 
balance of political power to give law and office to 
this Union, or " to do the greatest good to the great- 
est number," right or wrong. 

6th. The proposed amendment would supersede 
the necessity which now exists of party caucussing in 
Congress and out of it, to organize and concentrate 
popular action, and thereby to suppress and to corrupt 
the popular will, and to set aside the just pretensions 
of worthy citizens to e^'wa/ nomination -4 and by men 
too who have no right to put up and to put down by 
destroying individual independence and moulding pub- 
lic sentiment to subserve the purposes of party, whether 
they be to keep in office or to get into office. 

This necessity of private conventions and party 
organization which now exist, works corruption and 
looseness of political principles in the great body of 
the people in the exercise of the elective franchise — 
injustice to many of the best and most retiring and the 
most independent men in the country, and will finally 
put the election of the chief magistrate of this confed- 

the discipline of party ruled to move in the *• wake" of two irre- 
sponsible, self-created conventions, to vote as a party and not as 
dtiztm. 



64 FEDERALISM. 

eracy into the hands of the most vociferous, the most 
self -interested, the most impudent and the most active 
political partizans. Instead of the people taking the 
incipient independent action or lead in this transcend- 
ently important and delicate matter, the accepted plan 
by private convention will in time turn the whole 
over to Shavers, and Brokers, and Stockjobbers, and 
Officeholders, and Steam Doctors, and to the most for- 
ward, and to those who have most to hope in elections, 
and most to say abroad and least to do at home. 

7th. The projet is in perfect harmony with the great 
principle of representation in Republics, in which the 
people elect the best citizens to do that for them which 
physically or otherwise they cannot do so conveniently 
or so intelligently for themselves. 

8th. But the projet provides most effectually not 
only against the present constitutional contingency of 
an election of President and Vice President of the U. 
States by " the house" by a method the most pure, 
just, enlightened, and eminently republican, but it 
provides most effectually against another most alarming 
contingency which results from the present conven- 
tional scheme of only two candidates, and which at 
this very moment (for electioneering purposes) is made 
to stare the nation in the face, viz. : the possible as 
well as the " reported" death of one of the candidates 
on the very heel of the election. Can any man ima- 
gine the consequences of the realization of the former 
in a very doubtful struggle of well balanced parties, 
since the latter is so much dreaded. But it may very 
frequently happen that an old man of sixty or seventy 
years, to whom the " grasshopper" is said to be a 
" burthern," would give way under the super-excite- 
ment and vexation of a severe canvass, conducted as 
they are evidently destined to be, under the present 
system of physical and mental effort, bitter personality 
and political " hurricane." 

Second. I propose that that part of the fifth section 
of the first article of the Federal Constitution which 
declares that '<each house shall be the judges of the 



FEDERALISM. 65 

elections, returns and qualifications of its own mem- 
bers/' be abolished. That this whole matter be turned 
over to the respective states, whose duty it should be 
made and whose interest it is, to keep pure and wisely 
regulated their own elective franchise, and to send 
their representatives with a clean sheet legally authen- 
ticated, which the amendment should declare to be final 
in all cases. 

This scheme would be much more satisfactory to all 
the states and much less expensive to every body. In 
fact the practice under the present system has already 
become an enormous wide spread corrupting nuisance 
for political parties to dabble in. Had the contested 
election in the late New Jersey case been confined to 
that state, it would have been as a " tempest in a tea- 
pot" to a West Indian hurricane, compared to what 
the whole nation has witnessed and suffered already. 
It is evident that the policy of the Federal Constitution 
in relation to this matter was adopted without due 
consideration from the usages of the British Parliament ; 
without adverting to the facts that this is a confederacy 
now composed of twenty-six sovereign states — that 
the political circumstances and internal relations of the 
two Governments are without analogy — are entirely 
different from each other ; and therefore that the Brit- 
ish " precedent" is totally inapplicable, and should not, 
have been claimed for our Congress, which in these 
high party times as a tribunal in disputed elections 
have become the most expensive and the most excep- 
tionable on the face of the earth. 

The amendment therefore should make it the duty of 
the legislature of each state in all cases of disputed 
elections for members of congress or the electoral 
colleges to provide the most prompt and legal adjust- 
ment and certificate thereof, duly authenticated, which 
it should declare final of the dispute in all cases. 



APPENDIX. 



Abstracts of the Federal Constitution referred to in the 
foregoing numbers. 

1. Preamble : " We the People of the United States, in 
order to form a more perfect union, establish ^ws^ice, insure 
domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, pro- 
mote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty 
to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this 
Constitution for the United States of America. 

ARTICLE I. 

SECTION 5. 

*' Each house shall be the judge of the elections, returns 
and qualifications of its own members. 

SECTION 8. 

" The Congress shall have power to lay and collect 
taxes, duties, imposts and excises ; to pay the debts and 
provide for the common defence and general welfare of the 
United States ; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be 
uniform throughout the United States. 

" The Congress shall have power to regulate commerce 
with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with 
the Indian tribes. 

" The Congress shall have power to coin money, regu- 
late the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the stand- 
ard of weights and measures. 

*' The Congress shall have the power to declare war, 
grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concern- 
ing captures on land and water. 

" The Congress shall have the power to raise and sup- 
port armies, &c. 



FEDERALISM. 67 

" The Congress shall have the power to exercise exclu- 
sive legislation in all cases whatsoever over such District 
(not exceeding ten miles square,) as may by cession of par- 
ticular states and the acceptance of congress become the 
seat of Government of the United States, &c. 

" The Congress shall have the power to make all laws 
which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into exe- 
cution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by 
this constitution in the government of the United States, or 
in any department or officer thereof. 

SECTION 9. 

*' The migration or importation of such persons as any 
of the states now existing shall think proper to admit, shall 
not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year 1808, 
but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation not 
exceeding ten dollars for each person. 

" No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from 
any state, &c. 

SECTION 10. 

** No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confed- 
eration ; grant letters of marque and reprisal ; coin money ; 
emit bills of credit; make any thing but gold and silver 
coin a tender in payment of debts ; pass any bill of attainder, 
ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of con- 
tracts ; or grant, <fec. 

" No state shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay 
any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what 
may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspection 

laws. No state shall without the consent of Congress 

lay any duty of tonnage, keep troops or ships of war in time 
of peace, &c. &c. 

ARTICLE IV. 

SECTION 2» 

*' No person held to service or labor in one state under 
the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall in consequence 
of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such 
service or labor ; but shall be delivered up on claim of the 
party to whom such service or labor may be due. 



68 FEDERALISM. 

ARTICLE VI. 

" This Constitution, and the laws of the United States 
which shall he made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties 
made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the 

United States, shall be the supreme law of the land 

any thing in the constitution or laws of any state to the con- 
trary notwithstanding." 

AMENDMENTS. 

ARTICLE IX. 

" The enumeration in the constitution of certain rights, 
shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained 
by the people. 

ARTICLE X. 

" The powers not delegated to the United States by the 
constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved 
to the states respectively, or to the people." 



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